Presidents, commissioners, and time pressure: A mixed-methods analysis of migration communication by the European Commission

Abstract

The evolution of the European Commission and its functioning has sparked a broad scholarly debate. However, we know little about how individual Commission members communicate policies. We propose a theoretical framework that presents time pressure as a critical communicative resource to indicate priority and discuss its function for members of the European Commission. Using a comprehensive mixed-methods design that combines state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative text analysis methods, this article examines how institutional roles, evolving authority, and contextual factors, such as crisis periods, affect the communicative behavior of members of the European Commission. It focuses on the case of migration and asylum policy. We find key differences in how Commission Presidents and responsible Home Affairs Commissioners communicate and invoke time pressure. While Presidents have long emphasized urgency, Commissioners have historically downplayed time pressure. More recently, however, they have also increasingly stressed similar urgency. The qualitative analysis highlights distinct target audiences and framings of the time pressure invocations of Presidents and Commissioners.