‘How to make the most of your time in the Chair’: EU presidencies and the management of Council debates

Abstract:

How to manage a successful Council presidency continues to be a subject for debate. The literature has come a long way in identifying the roles and tasks of the presidencies. The debate is about the powers they have and the normative constraints they face while performing these roles. This paper focuses on how presidencies can effectively manage internal Council debates. We suggest a three-step mechanism that links performance to success. We subsequently perform a process tracing analysis of five Council presidencies and assess their relative performance in one (prioritized) issue area: the EU's Balkan enlargement policies. We argue that success depends on the fit between the Chair's and the Council's consecutive moves, in which the former has a first mover disadvantage. This explains why it has proven so difficult for presidencies to fulfil the roles that, with hindsight, were required.