The Trio Presidency and the Efficiency of Council Decision‐Making: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Does the trio presidency system enhance efficiency in EU legislative decision‐making? Since 2007, fixed groups of three Member States have been required to set a joint 18‐month agenda, with each Member State taking 6‐month turns at the presidency. To date, however, there has been no empirical evidence that either confirms or refutes the notion that this system is efficient. In a study of the duration of Council decision‐making on 1,927 legislative proposals for the 2000–12 period, we obtain empirical support for the hypothesis that a common agenda leads to a significant decrease in the amount of time needed to reach a first agreement on regulations, directives and decisions. In addition, we show that the requirement to pre‐negotiate the agenda helps to moderate the effect of political conflict on the speed of decision‐making, thereby offering support to the recent decision to proceed with the trio presidency system until at least 2030.

Can we do what we say we will do? Issue salience, government effectiveness, and the legislative efficiency of Council Presidencies

“…While the Trio Presidency (and especially the 18-month programme) could be regarded as an additional control, it has generated controversial interpretations in the literature. In his recent study, van Gruisen (2019) shows that the Trio Presidency leads to more efficient decision-making. Having certain proposals pre-negotiated among the Trio members facilitates later negotiations by diminishing political conflict (van Gruisen, 2019).…”

“…In his recent study, van Gruisen (2019) shows that the Trio Presidency leads to more efficient decision-making. Having certain proposals pre-negotiated among the Trio members facilitates later negotiations by diminishing political conflict (van Gruisen, 2019). On the other hand, Trio programmes may be important at the initial stage of cooperation and planning, but have a limited impact on the single Presidency performance (Warntjen, 2013b).…”

Participation of ministers in Council of the EU meetings: variation across members and decline over time

“…Since we cover 11 years, there were 22 cases of different presidencies. In the Appendix, we also include a dummy for membership in the fixed groups of three member states coordinating their presidency terms and agenda, the well-known trios, introduced in January 2007 (Jensen and Nedergaard 2014;Gruisen 2019).…”

Time is of the essence: Explaining the duration of European Union lawmaking under the co-decision procedure

“…Hertz and Leuffen (2011) showed that EU enlargements slowed down decision-making, while Toshkov (2017) questioned this finding. Van Gruisen (2019) demonstrated that the trio presidency format expedites decision-making. By contrast, consultations with external stakeholders prolong negotiations (Rasmussen and Toshkov, 2013).…”