Suchergebnisse

The extent to which the European Commission exercises 'political' roles in European integration is very much up for debate. Some recent analyses of the Commission take it for granted that its political roles have been in decline, while others have suggested they have increased – especially under the current President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who was appointed in 2014 by a much more politicised process than had been used previously and whose College has sought to present itself as being guided by a political mission and as offering political leadership to the EU. In this article, we aim to show that in the debate about the political roles of the Commission, 'political' has often been poorly defined and operationalised. By drawing on Public Administration scholarship, we offer a framework for analysing how and where in the EU system the Commission's political roles might become manifest. We then assess empirically these roles in different functions the Commission undertakes.

"Neill Nugent and Mark Rhinard assess the role of the Commission in external relations in light of the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty. Given the wide range of policies covered by this rubric (including trade, development, enlargement and foreign), the Commission's capacity for leadership varies substantially. The conventional wisdom on this topic is that the Commission has been on the decline since the Delors era, which the Lisbon Treaty 'is generally seen to have [...] accelerated [...] with the Commission often portrayed as the main loser in the institutional reforms and redistribution of power arrangements'. Contrary to the perception of the Commission's continued decline, Nugent and Rhinard argue that the Commission has largely held firm when it comes to its position in external relations." (contract)

DG ECHO, the European Commission's humanitarian aid department, pays special attention to helping the victims of ignored crises which often involve displaced populations living in exile for years or even decades. Adapted from the source document.