The European Commission is an organization which has come to fascinate or repulse a range of national politicians, journalists and social scientists. In contrast to the prevailing image of the Commission as a 'bureaucrat's paradise', however, and by using the results of original research, this book deliberately sets out to investigate this organization's relationship to politics. It does so first by developing a variety of case-studies (health, development aid, preparations for Eastern enlargement, etc.) as a means of studying the relationships, networks and interdependencies which link commissioners and Commission officials to national politicians, civil servants and interest groups. Second, by looking in detail at how the Commission publicizes its work, notably through producing public information and liaising with the media, fresh light is shone upon the complex question of the Commission's legitimacy. Politics and the European Commission provides a framework for generating new information about, and interpretations of, the power struggles at the heart of the EU.
Author(s): Andy Smith
Edition: New edition
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 248
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Notes on contributors......Page 12
Series editor's preface......Page 14
List of abbreviations......Page 17
Introduction......Page 18
Actors, institutions and interdependence......Page 32
Doing politics and pretending not to: the Commission's role in distributing aid to Eastern Europe......Page 34
The politics of collegiality: the non-portfolio dimension......Page 47
The Secretariat General of the European Commission, 1958 2003: a singular institution......Page 64
Political dynamics of the parallel administration of the European Commission......Page 84
The invention of a Directorate General for development (1958 1975)......Page 100
Institutionalizing public health in the European Commission: the thrills and spills of politicization......Page 113
The media, the Commission and its legitimacy......Page 134
Was it really just poor communication? A socio-political reading of the Santer Commission's resignation......Page 136
The politics of the Commission as an information source......Page 151
Advertising Europe: the production of public information by the Commission......Page 173
Publicizing the euro: a case of interest maximization and internal fragmentation of the Commission......Page 187
Where is he now? The Delors legacy......Page 203
Conclusion: politics in the European Union......Page 218
Bibliography......Page 224
Subject index......Page 243
Author index......Page 245
