From Integration to Integrity Administrative Ethics and Reform in the European Commission

This book is the first to examine how the European Commission has addressed concerns about its ethical standards since 1999. This is an important subject, as it deals with many of the concerns that ordinary citizens raise with regard to the European institutions, particularly in the popular press, where references to the European gravy train, to instances of nepotism or patronage, and even corruption and fraud are commonplace. Despite this, there has been no study of the European institutions themselves to question the validity of these claims, or, as in this case, to explore the extent to which the European Commission has been able to respond to and resolve such problems and/or criticism.

Michelle Cini is Reader in European Studies in the Department of Politics, University of Bristol.