EU Council Presidencies in Times of Crises

The Council of the EU is a powerful institution whose centrality has been challenged by the Treaty of Lisbon. More than ten years after this major institutional revision, this book examines its role within the EU political regime and its interactions with other institutions. It explores how the Council Presidency has navigated major crises over the past decade and addressed internal challenges. The various chapters discuss key timely questions: How has the relationship between the Council and the European Council evolved over time? To what extent have the recent crises reshaped the relationship between the Council and the European Parliament, as well as its interactions with the Commission? Is the Council Presidency still a powerful mediator? What are its internal challenges? What are the prospects for the rotating presidency system? 

The Council of the European Union is still largely unknown, and the interest of this book is to present in all its aspects an institution whose intergovernmental composition does not prevent it from creating among its members both a sense of common belonging and the need to act in the collective interest. The authors demonstrate that the Council of the European Union, though imperfect and undoubtedly impervious to reform, manages to strike a balance between national interests and the need for supranational action.

—Jean-Paul Jacqué, Honorary Directr General, Council of the EU, Emeritus Professor of EU Law at the University of Strasbourg, France.

‘EU Council Presidencies in times of crises’, edited by Ramona Coman, Olivier Costa, and Vivien Sierens, gathers the contributions of 14 leading experts (academics and practitioners) on the Council and its Presidencies: the least studied of the EU institutions but a central one, nonetheless. It is a highly topical and welcome publication and merits the attention of all those who want to understand the EU.

The various articles present the huge advantage of both providing a cogent analysis of the structure and functioning of the Council and  of describing the Council in its interaction with the other EU institutions. The secret of the EU’s success lies in the fact that none of the institutions can achieve anything without the concourse of the other institutions: the European Council, since the Lisbon treaty chaired by a full-time President, which sets the overall direction of the EU and has been the key driver of European integration since its creation almost 50 years ago in 1974, the Commission with its central roles of proposing legislation and  ensuring the respect of EU law under the ultimate control of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, and the directly elected EP, which has over the years developed into the EU’s legislative co-decision authority alongside the Council.  This institutional set-up reflects the nature of the EU as a union of States and peoples. 

With the exceptions of the FAC and the Eurogroup, Council formations are chaired by the rotating Presidency. As remarked in several contributions, this is a somewhat awkward system with some drawbacks in terms of continuity, visibility, and continuity. But the point is also made that it is a system that has many advantages in terms of legitimacy and ownership of Member States; and above it, it delivers on the whole. It is rightly said that no Presidency over the past years has ‘failed’; the reason for this is that the rotating Presidency is part of a sophisticated system with many checks and balances, and which simply does not allow it to fail! It is proper to think about possible reforms, as some of the experts do, but the editors in their conclusion rightly point out that the rotating Presidency is here to stay and that there is no appetite among the MemberStates to abolish it. Lastly, the book provides fascinating insights into the ‘hidden’ roles of the Committee of Permanent Representatives and the General Secretariat of the Council in keeping the ship afloat and making it work.

The editors and authors deserve our recognition for a most timely initiative and a well-researched and intelligent foray into the structure and functioning of the Council and its links with the other institutions.

 —Jim Cloos,TEPSA Secretary-General,Former Senior EU civil servant.

 

EU Council Presidencies in Times of Crisis" is required reading for anyone interested in European institutions. Its authors take a resolutely dynamic view on the EU Council Presidencies: the reasons for their transformation over time, the increase of their influence on EU politics, and its role in the crisis situations the EU has encountered since the Lisbon Treaty. The EU Council is analysed in context - not only the institution as such but how it interacts with other actors in the EU realm."

—Sabine Saurugger,Professor of political science,Director of Sciences Po Grenoble, France.

Ramona Coman is Professor in Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles, member of the CEVIPOL and Emeritus President of the Institut d’études européennes, Belgium.

Olivier Costa is Research Professor at the CNRS, CEVIPOF, Sciences Po (Paris), France.

 

Vivien Sierens is a Belgian diplomat. Holder of a PhD in political and social sciences (ULB & VUB), he is also an associate researcher at the Université libre de Bruxelles (CEVIPOL), Belgium.