Politics and the European Commission. Actors, interdependence, legitimacy

Abstract:
It is probable that at the centre of all political regimes or governmental systems there will be a struggle for power waged between the elected politicians and the appointed executives. This work explores that struggle as it arises in the EU between the politicians and the technocrats.

The work is organised over eleven chapters divided into two parts. The first part opens with a chapter dealing with policies to aid Eastern Europe and the 'camouflage politics' deployed by the Commission. Chapter two looks at individual Commissioners' behavioural and voting patterns within the Commission. The important role of the Secretariat General of the Commission is examined in chapter three. The focus in chapter four is on the attempt by the Commission to change the loyalties and identities of civil servants recruited from national bureaucracies. Chapter five examines the impact of the rise of the Directorate General for Development. Part one closes with an investigation of public health policies in chapter six.

The second part explores the opportunities to promote the Commission's legitimacy directly. Chapter seven presents a reconstruction of the Santer Commission resignations. Chapter eight provides an examination of the Commission's dealings with what is probably the world's largest press corps and its own political ambiguities. The latter also feature in chapter nine which deals with the Commission's production of public information - booklets, comics, brochures etc. The missed opportunity by the Commission to exploit the introduction of the Euro is covered in chapter ten. The final chapter explores the important role of the President of the Commission, based on a detailed examination of Jacques Delors' presidency.

The editor presents a concluding chapter on the tensions between technology and politics.

The work will interest academics, students and researchers engaged in EU politics.

Andy Smith is Senior Research Fellow in Political Science at the CERVL, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux.