Integration without supranationalisation: studying the lead roles of the European Council and the Council in post-Lisbon EU politics

Abstract

This special issue follows up on a stream of recent contributions on what has been identified as a particular phase of post-Maastricht European integration: the ‘new intergovernmentalism’ and ‘the intergovernmental union’. This literature considers the European Union’s (EU) core intergovernmental forums for policy coordination, the European Council, the Eurogroup and the Foreign Affairs Council as central to EU decision-making. These bodies perform functions related to policy initiation and implementation which were traditionally associated with the European Commission. Intergovernmentalisation is primarily detectable in new areas of EU activity such as economic governance and foreign affairs which operate mainly outside the community method and in policy sectors which depict a mix of legislative and non-legislative decision-making mechanisms, such as justice and home affairs and energy. More integration is achieved without significant further supranationalisation. These developments affect how the Union’s main decision bodies operate and how interinstitutional relations are structured.

Keywords:

• Integration
• intergovernmentalism
• supranationalism
• European Council
• Council

Notes

1. The only exception was the decision to provide ESM financial assistance to Cyprus. Technically, the Eurogroup is empowered to agree on the provision of ESM assistance, de facto it has only done so once without direct European Council authorisation. The lengthy negotiations with the Greek government under Alexis Tsipras in 2015 further attest to this claim. Though initially, the majority of EU member states refused to involve the European Council and, respectively, the Euro Summit to conclude negotiations with Athens, the two forums intervened eventually in July 2015.