Looking ‘Up’, ‘Down’ and ‘Sideways’: Understanding EU Institutions in Context

Research on the EU has expanded considerably in recent years. Studies have moved from examining the power of the various EU institutions across time to focusing on the internal activities and organisation of these institutions. The current piece makes a critical assessment of the existing literature on the EU institutions and considers which future steps need to be taken to move the literature forward. It argues that the articles in this volume move the literature further by examining internal institutional changes in the EU bodies in the light of the broader inter-institutional relationships between them. Moreover, it recommends that future research on the EU institutions expand these insights even further by extending the scope of the studies to embed them in a comprehensive understanding of the broader political system of the EU as a whole.