The European Council – the new centre of EU politics

Abstract:

The fundamental task of the European Council has been to define the EU´s general political direction. Its influence and scope of intervention, however, is gradually increasing.

With the Lisbon Treaty it was given a status of an EU institution and its meetings are since chaired by a permanent president. The European Council has been playing a pivotal decision-making role during the euro crisis, and it now emerges as the EU´s new power centre.

In this publication, Professor Uwe Puetter provides a background to those developments and analyses the implications of an increasingly stronger position of the European Council.