Governance and Institutions: Implementing the Lisbon Treaty in the Shadow of the Euro Crisis

Policy windows, ambiguity and Commission entrepreneurship: explaining the relaunch of the European Union's economic reform agenda

“…In particular, the MSF serves to qualify zero-sum based accounts of power which assume that the Commission has been irrevocably weakened by the eurozone crisis (for example , Dinan 2011;Puetter 2012). In fact, we find that the Commission served as the principal source of ideas behind Europe 2020 and the motor driving the agreement.…”

“…The President, Jose Manuel Barroso, was determined to address criticism that he had been slow to respond to the crisis by making Europe 2020 the centrepiece of his second term (Dinan 2010). Recognizing that only the European Council could provide the requisite political credibility to move the proposals forward, the two Presidents agreed to establish a series of regular meetings and an informal division of labour through which to kick start the economic reform process (Dinan 2011;European Voice 2010). At a specially convened summit on 11 February 2010, Barroso outlined plans for new policy initiatives and targets, while van Rompuy focused on compliance and enforcement.…”

The standing president of the European Council: intergovernmental or supranational leadership?

“…Immediately after the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty, heads of state or government elected the then Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy as the first standing president of the European Council by acclamation (Barber 2010;Dinan 2011Dinan , 2013aDinan , 2017Howorth 2011;Verdun 2013). This choice, however, contrary to its appearance was not unanimous.…”

EMU Political Leadership vs. Greek Civil Society: How Shall We Live Together?

“…once the potential contagion effect of the Greek fiscal crisis to other member states had been understood, the European Council reacted to this emergency by becoming the main de facto decision-making body, although legally it did not have a formal decision-making role in the EMU (Dinan, 2011). In 2012 it signed two new treaties: the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCGEMU), or so-called 'Fiscal Compact' , and the Treaty on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).…”