An Werts brings a unique perspective to the European Council. As a journalist, he has reported on the spot from virtually every European Council meeting since the start in the 1970s, a witness to countless episodes of last-minute arm-twisting and creative compromise. As a scholar, he wrote the first ever doctoral dissertation on the European Council, published in 1992. In 2008 another book carried the story forward to the verge of the start of the permanent presidency. In this latest book, against the background of the broad sweep of the history of the European Council, he focuses especially on the sequence of crises that began around the time of his previous book the Greek debt and broader euro crises, the migration and refugee crisis, Brexit and Covid among them. Jan Werts interviewed a galaxy of EU insiders whose assessments are extensively quoted in the text. He describes with realism, candour and some sympathy how the leaders, their officials and advisers battled against crises that at times seemed to threaten the European project itself. The institutional development of the European Council since its formal upgrading to an EU institution and the inauguration of the full-time presidency in 2009 is also a major theme. As Werts explains, while the European Council is by definition primarily intergovernmental in character, it has also become firmly embedded in the institutional architecture of the Union and in practice the main driver of EU integration, giving this the legitimacy that only the national leaders can provide. The book is divided into eight main parts. Part 1 offers an overview of the history and increase in powers of the European Council. Part 2 looks at how it has worked to resolve a succession of crises over the last decade and Part 3 assesses its role as provider of direction and leadership for the Union as a whole. Part 4 explores how the European Council has at times been the architect of its own failures. Parts 5 and 6 explain its mechanisms and procedures and how meetings are conducted, including what goes on behind the scenes. Part 7 considers the relationship with the other EU institutions and the changing balance of power, and Part 8 sums up with a series of key conclusions. --

The Treaty of Lisbon has produced deep changes to the EU institutional structure and its internal balance of powers. It has reshuffled powers between institutional actors and curbed the responsibilities of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in fields characterised by ‘high politics’. This paper discusses the institutional framework shaped by the Treaty of Lisbon, and provides an overview of the new, post-Lisbon roles of the rotating Presidency. Against this backdrop, the paper shows that the rotating chair maintains relevant roles in managing the Council agenda and in the legislative process, especially when representing the Council in trilogues. In addition, the paper examines how the rotating Presidencies dealt with crises in the post-Lisbon period. The analysis shows that asymmetric shocks tend to increase general disagreements in the Council, while shocks affecting countries in similar ways allow the Presidency to display effective leadership. These situations of urgency offer small member states the opportunity to take the initiative and engage in policy entrepreneurship, and to shape EU policymaking in ways which would otherwise likely be out of reach. All in all, the rotating Presidency is still considered a rare opportunity for the member states to put forward certain priorities, and it should not be neglected in the post-Lisbon times. Since crisis management is an integral element of almost every Presidency, policy flexibility and sufficient resources should be devoted by national governments to their activities as rotating chairs to act as efficient entrepreneurs of compromise.

Jan Werts brings a unique perspective to the European Council. As a journalist, he has reported on the spot from virtually every European Council meeting since the start in the 1970s, a witness to countless episodes of last-minute arm-twisting and creative compromise. As a scholar, he wrote the first ever doctoral dissertation on the European Council, published in 1992. In 2008 another book carried the story forward to the verge of the start of the permanent presidency. In this latest book, against the background of the broad sweep of the history of the European Council, he focuses especially on the sequence of crises that began around the time of his previous book the Greek debt and broader euro crises, the migration and refugee crisis, Brexit and Covid among them.

This work traces the development of the European decision-making process in the European Community in minute detail, from the Summit Meeting in Paris (1957) to the most recent European Council meeting. Special account is taken of the momentous and at times controversial changes brought about in this process, in particular by the Single European Act. As well as consulting numerous well-known and respected sources on European affairs, the much-travelled author draws on his personal experience as a journalist, presenting new and original conclusions on, for example, the legal status of the European Council's communiques and decisions. The issues touched upon afford much food for thought and are all the more stimulating when seen against the background of the internal market heralded for 1993 and the ever-changing events in Eastern Europe.Following a description of the roots of the European Council, the author deals with: # the organizational rules and functioning of the European Council, emphasizing the importance of European Political Cooperation # the legal nature and form of the European Council and its relations with the Community institutions # the meetings and their results # the progress made in decision-making over the years # the future of the European Council. The book is completed with relevant documentation, a comprehensive bibliography, a table of cases of the Court of Justice of the EC, a table of articles (EEC Treaty and SEA), a subject index and an index of names.

The Lisbon Treaty modified the legal framework of EU external action and these innovations must be applied in a period of deep economic and financial crisis interacting with other more specific crises affecting the EU's external activities. This volume investigates the recent institutional and substantive developments in EU external relations law and practice in this context of multiple crises for the EU. The economic and financial crisis has a major impact on EU external action, but other crises too affect this sensitive area of the EU's activity and the book takes them into account. For instance, there is a crisis in the relationship between EU law and international law after the ECJ judgement in the Kadi case. In addition to exploring these questions, the volume also examines questions of legitimacy in fields such as foreign investment protection and arbitration. Representing the output of a powerful research team composed of leading scholars in the field this comprehensive collection will appeal to both an expert and non-expert readership.