The book European Union Politics is edited by Michelle Cini and Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán. It appeared in its fifth edition with Oxford University Press in January 2016.
About the book
Written by an expert team of contributors, European Union Politics fully equips you to understand the EU and the topical debates and issues that surround it. Beyond its comprehensive coverage of the history, theory, institutions, and policies of the EU, it also features a whole section that explores contemporary issues and debates, including the eurozone crisis and public opinion. Its easy to read style, broad scope, and range of helpful learning features make European Union Politics the ideal starting point for all those wishing to fully understand this ever-evolving subject.
The European Commission
Morten Egeberg contributes to the section on institutions and actors, with a chapter providing a general introduction to the European Commission. He argues that it is more productive to compare the Commission to national executives or to a government than to a secretariat of a traditional international organization. The chapter begins with a summary of the Commission's functions within the EU's policy process. It then considers the question of Commission influence and autonomy, before moving on to look at the structure, demography, and decision behaviour within the organization - that is, at the role of the President of the Commission and the Commissioners, at the Commissioners' personal staffs, and at the Commission administration. It then looks at committees and administrative networks that link the Commission to national administrations and interest groups, and also deals with the recent growth of EU agencies. The chapter concludes by emphasizing that the Commission is moving away from having many inter-governmental features towards becoming much more of a European(ized) institution than it was at its inception.
Full info
The European Commission
Morten Egeberg
In: European Union Politics, fifth edition
Michelle Cini and Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán (eds)
Oxford University Press, 2016
ISBN: 9780198708933