Resilience of the Silo Organizational Structure in the European Commission

Abstract

This article investigates whether the organizational reforms that President Jean-Claude Juncker introduced strengthened the Commission's political role, enhanced co-ordination among Directorates General and affected the policy governance with respect to the circular economy. Drawing on organizational theory, the article demonstrates how Juncker's reforms empowered the Commission's leadership by centralization of powers and close monitoring of DGs' work. The inter-institutional interactions among the DGs formally increased, especially with respect to information clarification and the allocation of competences and resources. However, the top-down reforms undermined the DGs' and the services' entrepreneurial role in policy governance and innovation. In response, the individual DGs demonstrated resistance and resilience to these reforms. The article attributes this resistance and resilience to the DG's distinctive administrative capacity, practices, culture and the ‘logic of portfolio’, that reinvigorated the silo structure in the Commission and intensified inter-DG competition.