Journal
JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
Volume 43, Issue 6, Pages 755-771Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2020.1812063
Keywords
European Commission; presidency; steering; organisational reform; health; energy
Categories
Funding
- Jean Monnet Chair Grant [2015-2222/001-001]
- ESRC
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The reforms initiated by Juncker as President of the European Commission in 2014 were successful in increasing political steering, focusing on fewer fields, controlling policy activism, and reducing legislative output. However, the impact of these reforms varied in different policy sectors, leading to centralized coordination and reduced conflict in energy policy, but curbing purposeful opportunism and legislative activity in health policy.
Upon taking office as President of the European Commission in 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker initiated a series of reforms to the internal workings of the EU executive. Existing research suggests that these have been successful in increasing political steering, creating a Commission which focuses on fewer fields, controls the policy activism of its officials and produces less legislative output. However, much of this research focuses on the Commission as a whole. This article addresses a gap in the literature by exploring how the Juncker reforms have impacted upon the policy-making structures and internal dynamics within two contrasting policy sectors - energy and health. It finds that the reforms have been successful in prioritising selected policy initiatives and increasing top-down steering of the Commission but that, whilst this has led to centralised coordination and reduced conflict in energy policy, it has served to curb purposeful opportunism and legislative activity in health policy.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available