The EU’s Subordinated Agency Administration and the Rise of Executive Power at European Level

Abstract

Establishing separate executive bodies of a confederation or of a nascent federation of states (outside a council of ministers) seems in many respects to be the ‘hard case’ of institution building. The reason for this may be that it creates a capacity for action and execution of policies and not just for talk and formal decision making and that the action of separate executive bodies may be perceived as particularly threatening by constituent governments less eager to transfer power upward. It seems to have been easier to form (parliamentary) assemblies and courts of justice.