Instrumental calculation, cognitive role-playing, or both? Self-perceptions of seconded national experts in the European Commission

Contracted Government: Unveiling the European Commission’s Contracted Staff

“…Hofmann 2008; Murdoch and Geys 2012;Thatcher 2005;Trondal 2010 The current austerity environment has further highlighted the potential benefits of such contracted government to the Commission. Indeed, reflecting these 'challenges of today' and the zero-growth policy (in permanent posts) initiated (2007)530), the Commissioner for Interinstitutional Relations and Administration recently proposed the Commission should strive to (i) meet new political priorities through internal redeployment of staff; (ii) implement a 5 per cent reduction of staff in all categories in all institutions at the 2012 levels (by exploiting normal turnover rates); (iii) fulfil secretarial and clerical tasks by contractual staff rather than officials with lifetime appointments; and (iv) raise the maximum duration of contracts of other contract agents in the institutions from three years to five years (Šefčovič 2011: 1-3).…”

“…Hofmann 2008;Thatcher 2005;Trondal, 2010). As a consequence, 'Europe's administrative bodies [are] filled with European and member-state bureaucrats, experts and politicians' (Murdoch andGeys 2012: 1357). Concomitantly, given a constrained budgetary environment and the Commission's zero-growth policy of permanent staff, the Commission's reliance on contracted personnel has increased over the years -and is likely to increase in the years to come.…”

Who's at the table? An analysis of ministers’ participation in EU Council of Ministers meetings

“…The first introduces the microfoundation of the theoretical argument. Based upon a general expectation that multiple logics co-exist and inform individuals' behaviour (Murdoch andGeys 2012: 1372), the article presents both rational and sociological institutional explanations of why ministers may decide to attend Council meetings. The second part introduces six hypotheses formulated on the micro-foundations of the institutional approaches and deduced from existing studies on the workings of the Council, together with the literature on the relationship between politicians and civil servants.…”

Organizational Socialization

“…Decreases in public service motivation are theoretically attributed to post-entry discrepancies decisions and integration (for example Beyers, 2010;Murdoch & Geys, 2012;Suvarierol et al, 2013). Overall, this literature suggests that the importance of supranational socialization should not be exaggerated, especially when compared to more structural factors such as the Eurocrats' national affiliation of origin Quaglia, De Francesco, & Radaelli (2008) suggest that Eurocrats are multifaceted, becoming European in values but remaining attached to their national interests of origin.…”