Policy Preparation Inside the European Commission

The European Commission is at the heart of EU policymaking. However, over the past 15-20 years, its position has been challenged due to the growing influence of the European Council, the increased powers of the European Parliament, and the introduction of European agencies. This has led some observers to believe that the Commission's role and influence are diminishing. However, other observers argue that the Commission remains a highly significant institution.

Policy Preparation Inside the European Commission qualifies this debate. It argues that the key to understanding the Commission's position is its right of initiative in the EU policy process. The book demonstrates how the Commission has turned the right of initiative into a formidable political weapon. The authors support this point with a long list of creative studies of how the Commission prepares its policy proposals. Some studies focus on internal coordination inside the Commission, a first challenge for the Commission to overcome because, upon closer inspection, it is a highly fragmented institution split into approximately 50 administrative units. Other studies focus on how the Commission strategically interacts with actors in its environment - the member states, the European Parliament, and interest groups - to explore and expand its political room for manoeuvre. The core result is that the Commission is still a powerful and proactive player in EU politics.

JENS BLOM-HANSEN, Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University,ANNE SKORKJÃR BINDERKRANTZ, Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University,MARTIN BÃKGAARD, Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University,DANIEL FINKE, Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University,ROMAN SENNINGER, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University,SÃREN SERRITZLEW, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

Jens Blom-Hansen is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark, where he has been employed for most of his career. He has been on extended research stays at Harvard University, USA, Utrecht University, NL, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, Radboud University, Nijmegen, NL. His research interests include politics and administration in the EU, EU-member state relations, and intergovernmental relations inside the EU member states. His research has been published in American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, and other scientific journals.


Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University. Her research interests include the role of outside actors such as interest groups and corporations in politics. Recently she has also worked on political elites and the revolving door between insider and outsider positions in politics. Currently she is part of the research leadership of the Danish Democracy and Power Study. Her research has occurred in the British Journal of Politics, European Journal of Political Research and Journal of European Public Policy.


Martin Bækgaard is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research focuses on a variety of topics in the intersection between political science and public administration such as administrative burden, evidence-based policymaking, elite decision-making, political-administrative relations, and organizational autonomy. He was the principal investigator of a project on the psychology of administrative burden funded by an ERC starting grant from 2019-2024 and is currently leading a 4.5-year project on party leader justifications of electoral defeat funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.


Daniel Finke is a professor of political science at Aarhus University. His research interests cover European Union politics as well as the comparative analysis of international organizations, with a focus on the intersection between domestic and international politics. He earned his PhD (2008) in social sciences at Mannheim University, subsequently working as assistant professor in analytical politics at Heidelberg University until 2016. His research on the European Union and international organizations has been published in leading journals of the field such as International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Politics, Review of International Politics and Political Science Research and Methods.


Roman Senninger is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University. His research focuses on political elites, institutions, and public opinion in Europe, with a methodological emphasis on experiments and computational social science. His work is published in journals such as the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research and Methods, and European Union Politics.


Søren Serritzlew is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research interests include local government, the relation between politics and administration, and democracy. His research has been published in American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and other scientific journals.