The European Commission

Abstract

In the literature on the multiple crises that have affected the EU for more than a decade, the European Council has invariably been cast as the EU's crisis manager. While not disagreeing that the European Council can play an important and sometimes unique role in addressing extraordinary and difficult challenges, this chapter argues that it is important to recognise both the limitations on the capacity of the European Council to undertake 'crisis management', and the ability of wider set of EU actors equipped with a range of policy instruments to engage when serious problems confront the EU. Reviewing the period of the Juncker Presidency, this chapter examines the role played by the European Commission to address crises in areas commonly assumed to fall within the ambit of intergovernmental bodies.

European Integration and the War in Ukraine: Just Another Crisis?

“…Supranational entrepreneurship has been present in all four crises (Kassim and Tholoniat 2021). The European Commission successfully fostered agreement amongst the member states on the strengthening of supranational institutions in the Euro and the Covid‐19 crisis (Kassim 2023; Niemann and Ioannou 2015).…”

“…The European Commission successfully fostered agreement amongst the member states on the strengthening of supranational institutions in the Euro and the Covid‐19 crisis (Kassim 2023; Niemann and Ioannou 2015). Any of its proposals for reforming the supranational Common European Asylum System (CEAS), in contrast, have failed so far (Kassim and Tholoniat 2021, pp. 306–307).…”

“…534, 536). The rich Northern governments (‘the frugal 5’) gave up on their opposition against the mutualization of debt and compromised on fiscal austerity as a condition for solidarity (Kassim and Tholoniat 2021, pp. 622, 624).…”

The Institutional Ingredients of Polycrisis Management: Unpacking European Council’s Handling of the Energy Crisis

“…However, it quickly became clear that the EUCO's reach and grasp over the EU system was rather shallow. Effective crisis management required an effective interplay between the institutions, in which the EUCO nominally called the shots, but much of the heavy lifting was still done by the Commission and the Council (Kassim, 2023;Kassim & Tholoniat, 2020).…”