Power or Luck? The Limitations of the European Commission's Agenda Setting Power and Autonomous Policy Influence

Abstract

Building on the existing research on the European Commission's agenda-setting powers, this study examines the relationship between the policy priorities of the Commission and those of the other key policy actors in the European Union to determine the impact of other EU institutional actor preferences on the success of Commission priority initiatives. By using new and existing datasets to compare the European Commission's Work Programmes with European Council Summit Conclusions, the European Parliament's own initiative reports and Council Presidency Work Programmes, we are able to analyse the effect of policy priority congruence on the Commission's success and measure the autonomous policy influence of the Commission more accurately. Our results demonstrate that the Commission's priority initiatives are significantly more likely to result in legislative outcomes when they address policy topics already highlighted (whether fortuitously or as a result of Commission efforts) by the other key EU institutions. They also suggest that interpretations of the EU political system that ascribe the role of political executive to the Commission misconstrue its role.

Supranational Entrepreneurship Through the Administrative Backdoor: The Commission, the Green Deal and the CAP 2023–2027

“…Third, Commission entrepreneurship benefits from finding allies for its initiatives. Policy congruence with other EU institutions has been identified to have become increasingly important for the success of Commission initiatives (Oztas and Kreppel 2022). At the same time, the Commission has effectively promoted and used civil society organizations and experts to further its own ends (Princen 2011, pp.…”

“…The European Commission's ability to act as a policy entrepreneur is a classic topic of EU studies. In recent years, the debate has become ever more nuanced, delving into different policy fields, eliciting various strategies, revealing successes as well as failures (see, most recently, Brandão and Camisão 2022; Copeland 2022; Oztas and Kreppel 2022). Commission entrepreneurship, the studies show, is possible, but it depends on several factors.…”