Political leadership in times of crisis: the Commission presidency of Jean-Claude Juncker

Abstract

This article explores the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission president, addressing two questions: to what extent did Juncker exercise political leadership and in what ways did his leadership qualify as explicitly political? Drawing on leadership theory and recent insights into political leadership in the EU, the article first conceptualises the Commission president’s potential for acting as a leader – particularly a political leader. The empirical section analyses Juncker’s provision of agenda-setting and mediative-institutional leadership in two phases: the first marked by an extraordinary activism and an assertive attitude in agenda-setting, but with limited successes in achieving binding decisions; the second characterised by launching proposals for deliberation and debate, embedded in longer-term visions. The article concludes that around the mid-term of his incumbency, Juncker adapted to the constraining institutional and situational context by engaging in mediative-institutional leadership and carving out a new, more political role for the Commission president.

Keywords:

• Political leadership
• Commission presidency
• Jean-Claude Juncker
• agenda-setting
• mediative-institutional leadership
• political presidency

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the editors of this special issue, Henriette Müller and Femke Van Esch, as well as two anonymous WEP reviewers, for helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See detailed list in the appendix.

2 For an overview of central concepts of political leadership in the EU, see Müller and Van Esch (2019).

3 The Commission also performs important executive functions, which are not considered here.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ingeborg Tömmel

Ingeborg Tömmel is professor emeritus in International and European Politics at the University of Osnabrück. Her research focuses on the political system of the EU, European governance and policy making, and political leadership in the EU. Recent publications include: The European Union: What It Is and How It Works (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and ‘Political Leadership in the European Union’ (Special Issue of Journal of European Integration, 2017, 39:2) (with Amy Verdun). [[email protected]]