Navigating the Commission

Abstract

No administration works exclusively on the basis of formal rules. The Commission is no exception. But its administrative code is unusually detailed and onerous. Moreover, the Commission’s policy remit includes many ‘wicked problems’ - contested, highly technical, and having to be dealt with in a context of uncertainty – such as climate change, energy security and migration. All demand extensive coordination between officials with different policy specialities as well as between the Commission and other EU institutions, European governments, and civil society. This chapter focuses on how Commission officials ‘navigate’ their own administration to do their work in the face of these daunting challenges. It finds that most officials agree that the Commission must rely on informal networks more than hierarchy to succeed. The main basis for informal personal networks in the Commission is simply contact in the ordinary working life of officials, not nationality, language or ideology.