Is there any ‘price’ for making individual EU politicians more important? The personalization of politics in the European Commission

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of the personalization of politics has become increasingly popular when studying current political systems. Despite the growing scholarly interest in the personalization of politics in the European Union, the institutional sphere of politics has remained rather neglected. The aim of this article is to evaluate whether there is a personalization of politics at the institutional level of the European Commission (EC). Based on quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the documents that govern the functioning of the EC (since the early 1990s), this article finds that in general, it is possible to observe a tendency towards adopting more personalized reforms in the EC. Moreover, personalized reforms clearly led to enhancing the role of the EC President. This article supplements previous findings by concluding that in many cases, the enhancement of the President’s position has taken place at the expense of the College as a whole.