Description
Book SynopsisThe picture of Brussels-based bureaucrats exercising wide-ranging, arbitrary executive powers with no accountability is one of the favourite images conjured by Eurosceptics across the political spectrum. What truth is there in the image? This book aims to bring the EU''s executive powers out of the shadows by mapping the evolution and current form of the EU''s various executive actors, their powers, and the mechanisms for holding them accountable. In doing so it provides a rich understanding of the way in which the EU''s institutional and legal framework fits within national constitutional presumptions about how power should be controlled and accountability achieved.Covering both the political executive and the administrative executive at the EU institutional level, the book analyses their relationship with national executive power, and traces the historical evolution of executive order in Europe from the Peace of Westphalia through classic inter-governmental organizations to the alleg
Trade ReviewThis book takes a holistic approach; rather than providing an in-depth analysis of a particlar institution, Curtin analyses the political and administrative branches of the Council and the Commission as well as non-majoritarian agencies. It is the inclusive approach that makes this well written and clearly structured book stand out from other studies in the area. * Helena Ekelund, University of Nottingham, Political Studies Review *
Table of ContentsI TOPOGRAPHY AND LAYERED SEDIMENTS; II TIDES OF EU REFORM; III A LIVING EU CONSTITUTION
