The quest for power in the European Union - A heuristic case study exploring the factors that influence the Presidency's ability to shape the agenda
(2008)Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- Building on previous work on the agenda-shaping powers of the Council Presidency, this heuristic case study identifies and explores a set of important factors that influence the Presidency´s ability to shape the EU-political agenda. The primary material consists of a set of interviews with Portuguese and Commission officials, treating the Portuguese Presidency in 2007. Four main findings are discussed; the importance of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the effects of a new institutional setting called the Trio of Presidencies, the importance of the Presidency´s informal relations with other actors, and finally, the implications of the size and the resources of the country holding the Presidency. Of the findings, the... (More)
- Building on previous work on the agenda-shaping powers of the Council Presidency, this heuristic case study identifies and explores a set of important factors that influence the Presidency´s ability to shape the EU-political agenda. The primary material consists of a set of interviews with Portuguese and Commission officials, treating the Portuguese Presidency in 2007. Four main findings are discussed; the importance of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the effects of a new institutional setting called the Trio of Presidencies, the importance of the Presidency´s informal relations with other actors, and finally, the implications of the size and the resources of the country holding the Presidency. Of the findings, the importance of the Secretariat and the effects of the Trio of Presidencies have not before been noted in the literature. When the country holding the Presidency has scarce resources, the Secretariat disposes over a set of instruments that seem to allow it to extort the Presidency into sharing some of its agenda influence. The Trio of Presidencies seems to expand the agenda-shaping powers of the Presidency, through greater cooperation with other Trio-members, and through the usage of Trio-language when negotiating in the Council. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1317145
- author
- Ljungblom, Mikael
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2008
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Council Presidency, European Union, Agenda-setting, Agenda-shaping, Power, Council Secretariat, Political and administrative sciences, Statsvetenskap, förvaltningskunskap
- language
- English
- id
- 1317145
- date added to LUP
- 2008-06-16 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2008-06-16 00:00:00
@misc{1317145,
abstract = {{Building on previous work on the agenda-shaping powers of the Council Presidency, this heuristic case study identifies and explores a set of important factors that influence the Presidency´s ability to shape the EU-political agenda. The primary material consists of a set of interviews with Portuguese and Commission officials, treating the Portuguese Presidency in 2007. Four main findings are discussed; the importance of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the effects of a new institutional setting called the Trio of Presidencies, the importance of the Presidency´s informal relations with other actors, and finally, the implications of the size and the resources of the country holding the Presidency. Of the findings, the importance of the Secretariat and the effects of the Trio of Presidencies have not before been noted in the literature. When the country holding the Presidency has scarce resources, the Secretariat disposes over a set of instruments that seem to allow it to extort the Presidency into sharing some of its agenda influence. The Trio of Presidencies seems to expand the agenda-shaping powers of the Presidency, through greater cooperation with other Trio-members, and through the usage of Trio-language when negotiating in the Council.}},
author = {{Ljungblom, Mikael}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The quest for power in the European Union - A heuristic case study exploring the factors that influence the Presidency's ability to shape the agenda}},
year = {{2008}},
}