The European Council in the Era of Crises

Jan Werts brings a unique perspective to the European Council. As a journalist, he has reported on the spot from virtually every European Council meeting since 1975, a witness to countless episodes of last-minute arm-twisting and creative compromise. As a scholar, he wrote the first ever doctoral dissertation on the European Council, published in 1992. In 2008 he carried the story forward to the verge of the start of the permanent presidency. In this latest book, against the background of the broad sweep of the history of the European Council, he focuses especially on the sequence of crises that began around the time of his previous book − the Greek debt and broader euro crises, the migration and refugee crisis, Brexit and Covid among them..

Foreword, by Herman Van Rompuy
Preface, by Jan Werts

PART I: THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL: FROM ‘FIRESIDE CHAT’ TO CENTRE OF EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE

1. The European Council in our time
2. Since 2010: more crisis manager than strategic leader
3. Preamble to the European Council
4. The lifecycle of the European Council
5. A ‘Provisional European Government’?

PART II: RESOLVER OF CRISES

1. Economic government: how the leaders rescued the euro
2. Migration, Justice and Home Affairs: areas of permanent crisis
3. Brexit: a never-ending drama
4. The COVID-19 crisis

PART III: PROVIDER OF DIRECTION AND LEADERSHIP

1. Constitutional strategy
2. Foreign policy: a constant but problematic preoccupation
3. Financing the EU: complex negotiations on the MFF
4. Enlargement: accessions that proved difficult to manage
5. Energy and climate policy: a carbon-neutral economy by 2050
6. Appointments
7. The single market: a mixed story

PART IV: ARCHITECT OF ITS OWN MISTAKES AND FAILURES

1. EMU without a toolbox for crises
2. Schengen without reliable closed external borders
3. A deadlocked migration and refugee policy
4. The EU’s foreign policy: a ‘mission impossible’
5. The Lisbon Strategy that flopped and other flawed projects
6. Legitimacy and Brexit
7. Some reasons behind the blunders and failures

PART V: MECHANISMS AND ORGANISATIONAL RULES

1. An overview of the tasks and functions of the European Council
2. The legal status of the European Council since the Lisbon Treaty
3. The Euro Summit: a new phenomenon
4. The crucial agenda-setting of the meetings
5. The stepping stones to the conclusions: the summits’ centrepiece
6. The number, venue, and formats of the summits

PART VI: THE COURSE AND CONDUCT OF THE MEETINGS

1. The participants: a doubling of the membership
2. Decision-making in the European Council
3. The foremost decision-makers of the European Council
4. Some defining moments for the permanent presidents
5. The dominance of France and Germany

PART VII: A STRAINED RELATIONSHIP. THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL AND OTHER EU INSTITUTIONS

1. The Commission – now subservient, or a more complex picture?
2. The shallow relationship with the European Parliament
3. The lost key role of the Council of Ministers
4. The increasing voice of the Court of Justice (ECJ)
5. Birth of a ‘Union method’ of decision-making: intergovernmentalism plus Community method

PART VIII: FINAL CONCLUSIONS

1. The unstoppable advance of the European Council in perspective

ANNEX 1: List of summit meetings
ANNEX 2: Bibliography
Index