With the increasing number of treaty reforms since the beginning of the 1990s, the appointment process of the President of the European Commission, as well as of the European Commissioners, has strongly been altered in the "written constitution" of the EU. Yet, before the various reforms had been introduced, the appointment of the Commission President in particular, and of political personnel in the European Union in general, has often been reproached as being untransparent. As this leaves the 'black box' of political decision-making difficult to access, scientific approaches to the choice of political leaders are mostly missing in the acquis academique - mechanisms of personnel selection are under-researched as they take place behind closed doors and can hardly be traced. Nevertheless, profiles matter in the political process. Characteristics, preferences, and interests of those in power shape political offices and set the agenda. The research in this dissertation contributes to the study of personnel selection. It does so by identifying general patterns surrounding the appointment of the Commission President. Dissertation.

The EU's pluralistic, nonhierarchical system of multilevel governance lacks clear structures of both government and opposition. According to the EU treaties, the presidency of the European Commission is thus not explicitly expected to exercise political leadership. However, the position cannot effectively be exercised without any demonstration of such leadership due to its many leadership functions. Examining this curious mix of strong political demands, weak institutional powers, and need for political leadership, this book systematically analyses the political leadership performance of the presidents of the European Commission throughout the process of European integration. The basic argument is that Commission presidents matter not only in the process of European integration, but that their impact varies according to how the different incumbents deal with the institutional structure and the situational circumstances, and thus their available strategic choices. The primary research question is thus, What makes political leadership in European governance successful and to what extent (and why) do Commission presidents differ in their leadership performance? In addressing this question, this book departs from existing research on EU leadership, which has to date often analysed either the EU's institutional structure and its potential for leadership or mainly focused on only the most recent incumbents in case study analyses. Focusing on the multiterm European Commission presidents Walter Hallstein, Jacques Delors, and Jos� Manuel Barroso, this book conceptualizes their political leadership as a performance, and thus systematically analyzes their agenda-setting, mediative-institutional, and public outreach performance over the entire course of their presidential terms.

Co-authored by an international team of researchers and drawing on interviews with senior officials, The European Commission of the Twenty-First Century tests, challenges and refutes many widely held myths about the Commission and the people who work for it.