In the shadow of the vote? Decisionmaking efficiency in the European Community 1974 - 1995

The 1987 Single European Act (SEA) is frequently identified as a momentous landmark for European integration because it altered voting procedures in the Council of Ministers - substituting widespread qualified majority voting for the unanimity which had prevailed since the famous Luxembourg Compromise of 1966. Accordingly, nearly all accounts portray the 1970s as a time of enormous inefficiency and legislative stagnation, and hail the post-SEA period as one of expedited decisionmaking and an unblocking of proposals which had languished for years in the Council.However, despite widespread speculation about the significance of the SEA, only impressionistic accounts exist of post-SEA decisionmaking. This paper represents the first systematic effort to assess efficiency both prior to and after the institutional reforms of 1987. Based on comprehensive data for EC Directives proposed since 1974, the paper calculates legislative volume and decisionmaking speed over a twenty-two year period, and employs a multiple regression analysis to identify the determinants of efficiency over time and across policy sectors. The findings challenge several fundamental assumptions in the literature, revealing that in the 1970s decisionmaking efficiency was much higher than is often assumed, that the effects of the Luxembourg Compromise have been exaggerated, and that efficiency gains attributable to extending the shadow of the vote in 1987 have for the most part failed to materialise.