IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v54y2016i4p809-825.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Summitry to EU Government: An Agenda Formation Perspective on the European Council

Author

Listed:
  • Marcello Carammia
  • Sebastiaan Princen
  • Arco Timmermans

Abstract

While some observers have claimed that the European Council has become the key institution in European Union politics, others have argued that the Council's role has remained relatively stable over time. In this article, we argue that an analysis of agenda formation dynamics in the European Council may help us understand better how the European Council works and how its role has evolved over time. Building on theories of agenda‐setting, we identify two ideal‐typical modes of agenda formation: selective targeting and routine monitoring. Based on a comprehensive dataset of coded European Council Conclusions in the period 1975–2011, we show that the substantive content of the European Council agenda shows little change over time. However, in terms of agenda formation dynamics, we find a marked shift toward routine monitoring of issues. This supports the claim that the European Council is developing into the EU's de facto government.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcello Carammia & Sebastiaan Princen & Arco Timmermans, 2016. "From Summitry to EU Government: An Agenda Formation Perspective on the European Council," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 809-825, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:54:y:2016:i:4:p:809-825
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12346
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12346
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.12346?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon J. Bulmer, 0. "The European Council and The Council of the European Union: Shapers of a European Confederation," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 26(4), pages 17-42.
    2. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:46:y:2008:i::p:685-708 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Robert Thomson, 2008. "The Council Presidency in the European Union: Responsibility with Power," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 593-617, June.
    4. Simon, Herbert A., 1985. "Human Nature in Politics: The Dialogue of Psychology with Political Science," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(2), pages 293-304, June.
    5. Mads Dagnis Jensen & Peter Nedergaard, 2014. "Uno, Duo, Trio? Varieties of Trio Presidencies in the Council of Ministers," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 1035-1052, September.
    6. Alberto Alesina & Ignazio Angeloni & Ludger Schuknecht, 2005. "What does the European Union do?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 275-319, June.
    7. Fiona Hayes‐Renshaw & Wim Van Aken & Helen Wallace, 2006. "When and Why the EU Council of Ministers Votes Explicitly," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 161-194, March.
    8. Christopher J. Bickerton & Dermot Hodson & Uwe Puetter, 2015. "The New Intergovernmentalism: European Integration in the Post-Maastricht Era," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 703-722, July.
    9. Jonas Tallberg, 2004. "The Power of the Presidency: Brokerage, Efficiency and Distribution in EU Negotiations," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 999-1022, December.
    10. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:46:y:2008:i::p:593-617 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michal Ovádek & Nicolas Lampach & Arthur Dyevre, 2020. "What’s the talk in Brussels? Leveraging daily news coverage to measure issue attention in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(2), pages 204-232, June.
    2. Eliska Ullrichova, 2023. "Issue Hierarchization in Agenda‐Setting: The Case of the European Council Agenda," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 108-123, January.
    3. Austė Vaznonytė, 2020. "The rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU – Still an agenda-setter?," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(3), pages 497-518, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Svetličič Marjan & Cerjak Kira, 2015. "Small Countries’ EU Council Presidency and the Realisation of their National Interests: The Case of Slovenia," Croatian International Relations Review, Sciendo, vol. 21(74), pages 5-39, December.
    2. Michelle Hollman & Zuzana Murdoch, 2018. "Lobbying cycles in Brussels: Evidence from the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(4), pages 597-616, December.
    3. Vladimír Bilčík, 2017. "The Slovak EU Council Presidency: In Defence of Post-Brexit EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55, pages 64-72, September.
    4. James P Cross & AustÄ— VaznonytÄ—, 2020. "Can we do what we say we will do? Issue salience, government effectiveness, and the legislative efficiency of Council Presidencies," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(4), pages 657-679, December.
    5. Daniel Finke, 2017. "Underneath the culture of consensus: Transparency, credible commitments and voting in the Council of Ministers," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(3), pages 339-361, September.
    6. Philippe van Gruisen, 2019. "The Trio Presidency and the Efficiency of Council Decision‐Making: An Empirical Study," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 692-709, July.
    7. Andreas Warntjen, 2008. "The Council Presidency," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(3), pages 315-338, September.
    8. Valerio Leone Sciabolazza, 2022. "Bargaining within the Council of the European Union: An Empirical Study on the Allocation of Funds of the European Budget," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 8(2), pages 227-258, July.
    9. Brigitte Pircher & Mike Farjam, 2021. "Oppositional voting in the Council of the EU between 2010 and 2019: Evidence for differentiated politicisation," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(3), pages 472-494, September.
    10. Frank M Häge, 2016. "Political attention in the Council of the European Union: A new dataset of working party meetings, 1995–2014," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(4), pages 683-703, December.
    11. Stéphanie Novak, 2013. "The Silence of Ministers: Consensus and Blame Avoidance in the Council of the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 1091-1107, November.
    12. Daniel Finke, 2009. "Estimating the Effect of Nonseparable Preferences in Eu Treaty Negotiations," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 21(4), pages 543-569, October.
    13. Peter Viggo Jakobsen, 2009. "Small States, Big Influence: The Overlooked Nordic Influence on the Civilian ESDP," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 81-102, January.
    14. Fabian Herweg & Svenja Hippel & Daniel Müller & Fabio Römeis, 2024. "Axiom Preferences and Choice Mistakes under Risk," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 326, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    15. Deniz Aksoy, 2010. "Who gets what, when, and how revisited: Voting and proposal powers in the allocation of the EU budget," European Union Politics, , vol. 11(2), pages 171-194, June.
    16. Rigmar Osterkamp & Markus Eller, 2003. "Functional Decentralisation of Government Activity," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 1(03), pages 36-42, February.
    17. Sapir, Andre & Aghion, Philippe & Bertola, Giuseppe & Hellwig, Martin & Pisani-Ferry, Jean & Rosati, Dariusz & Vinals, Jose & Wallace, Helen, 2004. "An Agenda for a Growing Europe: The Sapir Report," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199271498.
    18. Luuk Middelaar, 2016. "The Return of Politics – The European Union after the crises in the eurozone and Ukraine," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 495-507, May.
    19. Thomas Sommerer & Theresa Squatrito & Jonas Tallberg & Magnus Lundgren, 2022. "Decision-making in international organizations: institutional design and performance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 815-845, October.
    20. Peter deLeon, 1987. "The influence of analysis on U.S. defense policys," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 20(2), pages 105-128, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:54:y:2016:i:4:p:809-825. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.