Another of my research areas concerns the European Council. The EU's "leaders' institution" assembles the heads of State or Government of the 27 member states, together with its own full-time President and the President of the European Commission. Among other things, I have analyzed the historical trajectory of the European Council (EPS 2026), its internal working patterns (JEPP 2025), its activities regarding EU enlargement (JEI 2025), and its relations with other EU institutions, such as the Council of ministers.
Our monograph "The European Council as a Crisis Manager" (Nomos 2022) theorizes and documents how the European Council, despite oftentimes different national positions and the need for unanimity, adopts far-reaching decisions. At the same time, taking the Covid-19 pandemic as a test case, we show the shortcomings in the European Council's work. Problems include decisions at the lowest common denominator, considerable political delay, and legal uncertainty at the cost of other EU institutions.
I am currently working on another monograph on the European Council - stay tuned!
