Intergovernmentalism and its implications – new institutional leadership in major EU reforms

Abstract

This paper contributes to a new understanding of the role and influence of the EU institutions in dealing with major EU reforms. Many have argued that, due to successive crises, Eurozone, Refugee and Brexit, EU decision making has become more intergovernmental. The role of the main intergovernmental body, the European Council, has been enhanced. Moreover, at various moments during these crises, the political leaders chose to bypass the Community framework, and opt for intergovernmental solutions. However, in the literature, intergovernmentalism also refers to a dominance of the member states vis-à-vis the institutions in shaping these agreements. This paper looks at the process-level implications of this increased intergovernmentalism. We analyse and compare the role and influence of the institutions in five major reform negotiations: EFSF/ESM, Fiscal Compact, banking union, EU-Turkey deal and British renegotiation. An exploration of these empirical micro-foundations reveals more institution-driven processes and outcomes than the label intergovernmentalist suggests.

Lobbying Brexit Negotiations: Who Lobbies Michel Barnier?

“…We underscore that this article does not take deliberative procedures as panacea or as the single most important tool that the CN holds at his disposal, as he attempts to achieve his objectives. We recognize that deliberative procedures face their own valid limitations (Lee, 2011;Lee & Romano, 2013), we also recognize that the negotiations hold a central institutional and intergovernmental component (Smeets & Beach, 2020). Nevertheless, interest groups represent an important EU policymaking cog.…”

The “Isms” of Regional Integration: What Do Underlying Interstate Preferences Hold for the ECOWAS Union?

“…In the 1990s, Andrew Moravcsik (1998) developed “liberal intergovernmentalism” to explain the process of integration in Europe, suggesting the combination of liberal theory to explain national preference formation and an intergovernmental theory of interstate bargaining to explain substantive outcomes (cited in Laursen 2008, 6). Intergovernmentalism is defined by Smeets and Beach (2020) as: (i) the legal shape of an agreement, as established outside the Community framework; (ii) the process, meaning a (more) prominent role of intergovernmental bodies or arenas in the decision making; and (iii) the outcomes, meaning the dominance of member states vis‐à‐vis the regional institutions in shaping the substance of these agreements.…”

“…One of the marked features of international politics has been the growth of regional groupings (Murdoch 2015). As such, the intergovernmentalism literature has connotations that go beyond the legal shape of—and formal involvement in—an agreement and the dominance of member states vis‐à‐vis regional institutions in shaping the substance of agreements (Smeets and Beach 2020). Nevertheless, the establishment of ECOWAS has been hailed as a breakthrough in international efforts to institute some form of economic cooperation and integration among West African nations (Ojo 1980).…”

“…In contemporary politics, there is debate about the rise of intergovernmentalism and the applicability of grand theorizing (Smeets and Beach 2020). The underlying national preferences for joining regional organizations are either economic or geopolitical interests (Moravcsik 1998).…”

“…In this article, we examine the practice and ideology of intergovernmentalism and realism in the achievement and implementation of ECOWAS policies and treaties. Debate on “intergovernmentalism has been moving in the direction of theoretical refinement, where more and more (sub)types were introduced: (old and ‘new’) ‘liberal intergovernmentalism’ (LI), ‘new intergovernmentalism’ (NI), ‘deliberative intergovernmentalism’, ‘intergovernmental union’, and even supernationalist intergovernmentalism” (Smeets and Beach 2020, 1138). The focus on ECOWAS is influenced by the paucity of empirical studies and the peculiarities of the region (Okoro et al .…”