Towards Effective and Accountable Leadership of the Union: Options and Guidelines for Reform. EPIN Working Paper No. 3, January 2003

Coussens, Wouter and Crum, Ben. (2003) Towards Effective and Accountable Leadership of the Union: Options and Guidelines for Reform. EPIN Working Paper No. 3, January 2003. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

[From the Executive Summary]. The success of the Convention on the future of the EU will to a great extent depend upon on its answers to the institutional questions. Among these questions, the issue of EU leadership plays a crucial role. In this paper, we identify three challenges for the re-organisation of leadership in the Union: 1. Union leadership has to be more effective. The Union’s growing responsibility for truly governmental tasks (e.g. EMU, CFSP, JHA) makes this an imperative. Enlargement will further add to this necessity. 2. Leadership in the Union should contribute to the democratic character of the Union. Indeed, leadership reform may offer an opportunity to increase the engagement of the people and the visibility of the Union. 3. Leadership reform should not fundamentally distort the Unions institutional balance. The Union is no longer a normal international organisation but neither is it a sovereign political system. Leadership reform must maintain the precarious balance between on the one hand the European general interest and on the other the diversity of national interests. In view of these three challenges, we consider the two main strands of debate that touch upon the issue of leadership in the EU: first, the debate on the election of the Commission President and, secondly, the different proposals for reforming the Council Presidency.

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