Towards a re-allocation of responsibilities and a new division of power in the EU

Abstract

The crisis has brought about a major re-allocation of responsibilities and power between and within states and institutions. The radical change in EU economic governance does not only refer to the involvement of supranational institutions and bodies in the decisions on the total national budget but also on the structure of national revenues and expenditures and the level of specific categories of revenue and expenditure of national budgets. In addition, the introduction of all sorts of conditionalities adds a wide range of measures and policies to those in which the EU and the member states have co-responsibility. Furthermore, the economic crisis has brought about signifi cant changes in the institutional balance of the European Union. More and more critical decisions seem to be taken solely as a result of intergovernmental consultations. The European Council is strengthened and assumes the dominant role, the European Parliament is marginalized, the Council of Ministers often becomes a simple forum for validation of major decisions taken in other informal bodies and the European Commission sees its role restricted to its executive responsibility.