Although there has been a welcome diversification in the study of EU institutions in recent years, the literature remains overwhelmingly focused on formal procedures, legislative outcomes, and the relative influence of institutions on policy. However, decision making and policy making are only one albeit important part of the story. The contributions to this panel address institutions or processes that are significant in the operation of the EU system, but that attract less attention. The panel has three distinctive features. First, in terms of institutions or institutional bodies, it includes papers on the European Commission and the European Parliament, but goes beyond the usual suspects to encompass the Council Secretariat and the European Court of Auditors, which feature far less often in academic scholarly. Second, rather than simply comparing institutions according to a fixed template, the papers examine intra- as well as inter-institutional dynamics, including parliamentary hearings of Commissioners, and the interaction between Commissioners and their services. Third, the papers it brings together draw upon a range of methods. Some draw on quantitative analyses of large datasets, others rely on process tracing. All report original data collected by the authors.