The European Commission - Michelle Cini

Of all the organisations that shape our political environment, the European Commission is perhaps the most maligned and least understood. Complex and sometimes confusing, the Commission performs a variety of functions at the European level that often fail to fit familiar categories of administration, international organisation or governance.;The European Commission raises important questions about the institution itself and also about the broader politics of the European Union. Michelle Cini draws on up-to-date sources, both academic and journalistic, to explain what the Commission does, how it does it and why. Three perspectives form the basis of this study: the question of leadership in and of the Commission, most notably in the guise of the President and the twenty commissioners; the organisation of the Commission - the structures and processes, both formal and informal, that shape internal dynamics and policies pursued; and the Commission's administrative culture - the myths, values, ideology and basic assumptions that are largely taken for granted by those who work within the institutions.;From these three perspectives, the author draws conclusions about the raison d'etre, the legitimacy and the effectiveness of what is rather narrowly labelled the EU's 'administration'.