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The European Council and European Governance. The commanding heights of the EU

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The European Council and European Governance. The commanding heights of the EU

In recent years, the failure of the constitutional process, the difficult ratification
and implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, as well as the several crises affecting
Europe have revitalized the debate on the nature of the European polity and the
balance of powers in Brussels. This book explains the redistribution of power in
the post-Lisbon
EU with a focus on the European Council.
Reform of institutions and the creation of new political functions at the top of
the European Union have raised fresh questions about leadership and accountability.
This book argues that the European Union exhibits a political order with
hierarchies, mechanisms of domination and legitimating narratives. As such, it
can be understood by analysing what happens at its summit. Taking the European
Council as the nexus of European political governance, contributors consider
council and rotating presidencies" co-operation,
rivalry and opposition. The
book combines approaches through events, processes and political structures,
issues and the biographical trajectories of actors and explores how the founding
compromise of European integration between sovereignty and supranationality
is affected by the evolving nature of this new European political model which
aims to combine co-operation
and integration

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