posted on 2022-10-04, 14:49authored byFrank M. Häge, Dimiter Toshkov
The high success rate of Commission proposals seems to suggest that the European
Commission is very influential in promoting European policies. However, the Commission’s
agenda-setting activity might be affected by its anticipation of member states’ preferences. If
the Commission acts with foresight, it simply does not initiate a proposal when it knows that
the proposal will not be acceptable to member state governments in the Council or, more
recently, the European Parliament. In this respect, the Commission is far less powerful than it
appears. We test this hypothesis with aggregate data on the number of Commission proposals
for directives and the degree of EU support in the Council between 1976 and 2003. The
results of the analysis broadly support the theoretical argument.
History
Publication
Limerick Papers in Politics and Public Adminstration
Publisher
Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick