Among the international relations’ subjects there has always been a debate between those who support the intergovernmentalism and those who defend the (neo)functionalist view of the Union. An important hypothesis, that will be the central part of our paper, is that the compromise is the base...

The aim of this essay is to test the hypothesis that the Council has a dual nature, it can be perceived both as an intergovernmental conference and as a supranational institution. To do this, in the first part of the paper we will review the main characteristics and functions of the Council,...

This article uses the Domestic Structures and European Integration (DOSEI) data set of actors’ preferences on 65 issues in the 2003-4 Intergovernmental Conference to extract the underlying preferences of the governments, the Commission and the European Parliament on the main dimensions of...

The purpose of government in a democracy is to provide those goods and services to the community that the market fails to provide efficiently. To achieve this goal those in government must not only know what goods and services the community desires, but must also be prevented to choose outcomes...

The purpose of government in a democracy is to provide those goods and services to the community that the market fails to provide efficiently. To achieve this goal those in government must not only know what goods and services the community desires, but must also be prevented to choose outcomes...

After the fuzziness in Europe that surrounded the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure foreseen by the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), the European Union had to restore the credibility of the weakened fiscal rule. The constraint was to keep alive the Treaty of Amsterdam. Indeed, an...

The process set in place in 1999 in Tampere anticipated the development of supranational decision-making in the development of immigration policy. Nevertheless, there has been an accelerating process of intergovernmental agreements, not only around border control, but also around integration and...

Since 1 May 1999, the day when the Treaty of Amsterdam entered into force, we have been able to observe a fundamental change in view of the field of civil procedure law cooperation. In the Treaty of Amsterdam the European Union set as a goal the establishment of the area of freedom, security and...