Displacement of the Council via informal dynamics? Comparing the Commission and Parliament

Article is part of a special issue entitled 'Dynamics of formal and informal institutional change in the EU'.
Article abstract:

This article will focus on the Commission's informal interactions with the Parliament and Council alike. With less to gain than the Parliament and more to lose, the Commission is involved in numerous tri-lateral informal accords and bi- lateral accords with the Parliament - informal agreements set outside the formal European Union (EU) Treaty. Directly related to the incessant inter-organisational power game among the EU's three primary actors, the Commission has engaged in a concerted informal influence attempt via its recent and much anticipated White Paper on EU governance. While the primary inter-organisational battle is fought between the Parliament and Council, there is a considerable amount at stake for the Commission. This article thus aims to ascertain how the Commission has fared in its own game of informal inter-organisational dynamics.