Documents Dehousse, Renaud 11 results

"The European Commission is arguably the world's most powerful international administration. It plays a central role in the political system of the European Union. The Commission is a permanent presence in the life of the member states, but its influence is felt far beyond their borders. Viewed historically as the motor of European integration, the Commission is the subject of intense controversy. It is portrayed frequently as technocratic, monolithic, and unaccountable, but also as fragmented and weakly led. According to accepted wisdom, it is populated by career bureaucrats, who want only to expand the competencies of the Union and therefore their own power. This book tests these views. It asks: Who are the people who work for the organization? What are their educational and professional backgrounds? What do officials believe about the role of the Commission in the EU today and whether the Union should have more or less power? What leads them to choose to pursue a career in the Commission, and how do they navigate its complexities? How does the Barroso Commission compare to previous Commissions? How harmonious are relations between cabinets and the services? What has been the impact on the Commission of reform and of the 'big bang' enlargement? Co-authored by an international team of researchers, this book draws on original data from the largest attitudinal survey ever conducted by independent researchers inside the Commission, as well as a structured programme of interviews with senior officials. It provides an authoritative account of the European Commission of the twenty-first century."

"Since the mid 1990s, European governance has evolved substantially, particularly in the direction of fewer constraints: flexibility, coordination, peer monitoring, and soft law have become fashionable themes. The literature on “new modes of governance” (or NMGs) has flourished alongside these transformations. But is the existence of “new” instruments of governance necessarily synonymous with an innovative way of doing things? Is it really the case that NMGs now play a central role in EU policy-making? Are we witnessing the emergence of an entirely new system of governance at the European level? In order to address these questions, this paper begins by briefly making the point that the concept of governance is better suited to describing the way public policy is conducted in the European Union, than that of government. It then moves to a discussion of the main trends that are identified as NMGs in order to assess to what extent they can properly be described as “new”. This is followed by an overview of more traditional forms of EU action, which shows that “old” governance has far from disappeared.

The European system of governance is thus a good example of change in continuity: “old” and “new” are not mutually exclusive and this hybrid situation may in part be due to the great contiguity that exists between new modes of governance and their forerunners. New modes of governance are best analysed as an accentuation of the original features of the system, rather than as outright innovations. Both were largely conceived to respond to the same need, to provide a framework for interstate cooperation without leading to an unwanted degree of centralisation. This is not without analogy with the metaphor of the “marble cake”, used over a century ago by Morton Grodzins to describe the coexistence of several varieties of federalism in American government. Pure innovations are rare in the world of governance."

"Europe is said to be in crisis. National leaders can seem to be more concerned with domestic issues than with identifying options which serve the interests of all European states, and a decade of institutional debate has not provided European citizens with a clear sense of direction. The European Union is often slow to respond to the crises with which it is faced and the quality of its responses has been called into question.

Sixty years after its invention, the operational system of the European Union still remains little-understood. This book provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of its functioning and achievements. The purpose of the volume, which includes contributions from leading scholars, is twofold. First, it aims to improve our understanding of the operation of the 'Community method,' shedding new light on its successes and failures. Secondly, it discusses to what extent the EU of today can be said to still be operating according to this model."

"Une démarche qui répond au besoin d'" Évaluer l'Europe ".
En savoir plus et mieux sur l'Europe, pouvoir évaluer ses acteurs, telle est la raison d'être de l'Observatoire des institutions européennes (OIE) créé par le Centre d'études européennes de Sciences Po autour d'une équipe internationale de spécialistes des questions institutionnelles.
Partir de données chiffrées Inédites.
Sans équivalent dans les milieux français ou internationaux de la science politique, cette nouvelle série " Évaluer l'Europe " s'appuie sur des données quantitatives concrètes pour comprendre et dévoiler le fonctionnement réel de la " machine " européenne. Des conclusions à l'encontre des idées reçues.
Élargie à dix nouveaux États membres depuis mai 2004, privée des réformes institutionnelles prévues par le traité constitutionnel après les "non" français et néerlandais, l'Union européenne paraissait condamnée au blocage. Les données rassemblées révèlent au contraire une étonnante capacité d'adaptation.
L'Europe continue à décider et même plus rapidement ! Comment l'expliquer ? Elle produit moins de décisions communes. Faut-il s'en inquiéter ? L'ambition de cet ouvrage est de permettre à chacun de participer au débat sur l'Europe en connaissance de cause. "