Balancing Institutional Power in European Policymaking

Since the European Union (EU) has been confronted with multiple crises, scholars have debated the consequences from the viewpoints of integration, disintegration, and differentiated integration. This book takes a different perspective. Rather than focusing on macro-structures, it highlights the ongoing contestation and balancing of power in everyday policymaking. These processes lead to incremental, often hidden informal institutional change rather than overall Treaty amendments. They unfold in European legislation under the Community method, in intergovernmental politics, administrative policymaking, and court proceedings, and often link all these venues. The book analyses and empirically describes different conflicts, strategies, and processes through which actors respond to power imbalances in policymaking and seek to reshape the rules and patterns of interaction. The authors argue that this enduring balancing of power is essential to the EU's resilience, as it compels actors to respond to challenges and find institutional solutions, particularly in a fast-changing international order.