Managing Crises, Sharing Power: The EU’s Inter-Institutional Coop

This report delves into the question of whether the various EU institutions and member States cooperate and share competences effectively in times of crisis, and whether they do so without compromising the EU’s institutional balance. To do so, the report compares three intentionally caused crises: the increasing cases of (suspected) sabotage of critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, the Belarus-EU border/migration crisis and the energy crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While the first entails a policy area within the security field where the EU has limited powers and where, in principle, Member States take decisions unanimously, the latter two cases entail policy areas where the EU institutions share competences with the Member States. In this way, it is possible to compare different institutional interplays and their impact on the effectiveness of EU actions. Conclusions are based on an analysis of official policy documents, secondary literature, and a series of interviews.

Authors

Saskia Hollander - Programme Lead EU and Neighbourhood and Senior Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute

Karen van Loon - Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute