Leadership In The Big Bangs Of European Integration (palgrave Studies In European Union Politics)

This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of the major treaty reforms over the past two decades, to consider whether the path from the Single European Act in 1985 to the present Constitutional Treaty has been pushed by the Franco-German tandem, or has been the result of leadership provided the Commission or smaller member states. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii Introduction....Pages 1-21 The EU Presidency: France in the 2000 IGC....Pages 22-37 Drawing Lessons in the Chair: Assessing the Dutch Presidency’s Impact during the Maastricht and Amsterdam Conferences....Pages 38-57 The EU Presidency – Comparing the Italian and Irish Presidencies of the 2003–04 Intergovernmental Conference....Pages 58-75 Oiling the Wheels of Compromise: The Council Secretariat in the 1996–97 and 2003–4 IGCs....Pages 76-93 Leader or Bystander? The European Commission and EU Treaty Reform....Pages 94-114 A Formal Outsider Becomes an Effective Player: The European Parliament in the Negotiation of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Constitutional Treaty....Pages 115-133 Big versus Small: Shared Leadership in the EU and Power Politics in the Convention....Pages 134-157 Cooperative Hegemon, Missing Engine or Improbable Core? Explaining French–German Influence in European Treaty Reform....Pages 158-177 Britain and the European Union: A Laggard Leader?....Pages 178-200 The Constitutional Treaty and Poland – A New Laggard in the EU?....Pages 201-218 Is There Anyone in Charge? Leadership in EU Constitutional Negotiations....Pages 219-226 Conclusions....Pages 227-246 Back Matter....Pages 247-279 European Union constitutional treaty negotiations are very complex, unpredictable and messy affairs with high bargaining (transaction) costs. Leadership is often necessary in order for the parties to find and agree upon a mutually acceptable outcome. Various types of leadership are demanded in different types of circumstances, and who provides leadership affects the shape of the final outcome. The use of a common framework throughout the volume allows the volume to provide some tentative answers to the following empirical questions: which actors have driven the European integration process in the last two decades?; and, more importantly, what factors allowed specific actors to provide leadership in a given context? These conclusions provide a major step forward in the literature on the history-making bargains in the EU, enabling us to answer with more confidence the question of which actors have guided the 'big bangs' in the European integration process in the past two decades, and why