In recent years, the failure of the constitutional process, the difficult ratification and implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, as well as the several crises affecting Europe have revitalized the debate on the nature of the European polity and the balance of powers in Brussels. This book explains the redistribution of power in the post-Lisbon EU with a focus on the European Council. Reform of institutions and the creation of new political functions at the top of the European Union have raised fresh questions about leadership and accountability. This book argues that the European Union exhibits a political order with hierarchies, mechanisms of domination and legitimating narratives. As such, it can be understood by analysing what happens at its summit. Taking the European Council as the nexus of European political governance, contributors consider council and rotating presidencies' co-operation, rivalry and opposition. The book combines approaches through events, processes and political structures, issues and the biographical trajectories of actors and explores how the founding compromise of European integration between sovereignty and supranationality is affected by the evolving nature of this new European political model which aims to combine cooperation and integration. The European Council and European Governance will be of strong interest to students and scholars of European studies, political science, political sociology, public policy and international relations.

The European Council and the Council are presently perhaps the most important European Union institutions yet little is know about the reasons behind the importance of the two bodies. This book provides one of the most comprehensive accounts of the leadership roles of the European Council and the Council in European Politics.

Philippe Samyn, architect and engineer, created with this building for the European Council an architectural masterpiece. Clever in its entirety and in every detail, in its iconic functions, and in its decorum, it perfectly reflects the aura of power that the 28 members of the European Union share together. In addition to Jean Attali and Philippe Samyn's view on the building phases, this book also includes the overall picture of the project. All the phases of the building process as well as the facilities are dealt with. Text in English, Dutch and French.

Heads of state or government of the member states of the European Union have a dual role: they are and remain holders of domestic executive offi ces, but at the same time members of the European Council - the EU institution that is the centre of political authority within the Union. This membership, approached here from a constitutional and historical perspective, is autonomous to the extent that it is attributed to the heads of state or government and substantively determined by the EU's constitution. It is a key part of the EU structure and fundamental for comprehending the executive branches of the Union and of the member states as well as their relationship. The present study analyses the force of the dualitythat membership entails for the accumulation of authority within the European Council. It investigates for a number of member states - The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany - whether and how European Council membership has become compatible with and has affected domestic constitutional positions, domestic executive institutions and systems at large. It contributes to the understanding of the relation between national executives and the Union.

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.

Since its foundation, the Council of Europe has established a common legal system for European states, based on democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Its standard-setting texts have helped its members meet the challenges of changing societies and now apply all over Europe given the organisation¿s unprecedented geographical enlargement since 1989. In this connection, the Council of Europe has played a key role in the accession of the new member states to the European Union. The first section of the book deals with the "constitutional" law of the Council of Europe, or its internal statutes in the broad sense. It covers the 1949 Statute, which, along with related texts, lays down the Council¿s aims and determines its membership and operating methods. The second section concerns the role played by the Council of Europe - which has always been very active in standard-setting - in the harmonisation of European states¿ domestic law. The third section situates Council of Europe law in the European context. For instance, it studies the extent to which Council of Europe conventions have been incorporated in domestic law and how Council of Europe law and European Union law co-exist.