Research Papers

This paper addresses relations between national actors and the EU institutional framework before and after implementation of the Lisbon Treaty. It focuses, inter alia, on the following questions: How does the institutional setting influence the behaviour of these actors in the Council of the EU, in the EP and the Commission? Assuming that the Lisbon Treaty institutional modifications resulted in narrowing the options for the member states within the formal decision-making rules (stronger EP, broader application of the QMV), the member states/national actors should react to this shift by looking for replacement of opportunities to exert influence on the decision-making process. we hypothesize that the national actors will seek to strengthen their ties across the EU institutions and that the member states will more often rely on informal bargaining/politics.