The EU Council(s) System and Administrative Fusion

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is arguably of central importance for the policy making of its member states. To fully grasp the working of the EU, the administrative infrastructure that links the national and supranational levels needs to be studied. One is confronted with a high degree of bureaucratic complexity, which public perceptions generally label as ineffective and too slow. The academic analyst also needs to deal with considerable evolution and transformation: the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force in 2009, has considerably changed the EU’s institutions and with it the EU’s administrations. Moreover, reforms in response to the financial and sovereign debt crises since 2008 have rendered the EU system even more difficult to assess.