The European Commission and the Eurozone Crisis: An Interim Assessment

Although it is perhaps too early to draw definitive conclusions as to the effect of the Eurozone Crisis on the European Commission, the question is still one which is worth addressing. As a first step, and drawing on the literature on gradual (rather than transformative) institutional change, this paper offers a scoping of the various ways in which the question might be addressed, taking into consideration issues such as the different categories of effect (such as effects on credibility or effectiveness, or on policy role and function) and the variation that we might expect to see across the Commission, by DG, policy, or governance mode. The paper also reflects on the arguments -- some now conventional -- about the role of the Commission in the crisis. For example, some argue that the crisis is more likely to strengthen than weaken the Commission; or that the effects of the crisis cannot be divorced from the effects of the administrative reform of the early 2000s, and the impact of the enlargements of 2004 and 2007. While the paper does not aim to present research findings at this stage, it does take a first (and interim) step towards assessing the gradual transformation of the Commission, with a particular reference to the Eurozone crisis.