| Abstract [eng] |
Holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU is seen both as an opportunity and as a burden for the member states (MS). While the functions and the achievements of Council presidencies on the EU level have been studied widely, this chapter adopts a reverse perspective and tackles the impact and implications of holding the position for the administrations of the MS. Drawing on 97 expert interviews and adopting the theoretical concepts of Europeanization and new institutionalism, the chapter examines the impact of the Council presidency on administrations of six small MS that held the position between 2013 and 2017, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Malta, comparing them to a larger state, the Netherlands. The chapter shows that holding the presidency leads to at least temporary Europeanization of national administrations and to an improvement of national-EU policy coordination practices, mostly from sociological institutionalist perspective, through change of attitudes, skill development and networking. It also reveals that Council presidencies held for the first time are prepared more thoroughly and contribute more strongly to Europeanization of national administrations, but there are no apparent differences when it comes to the quality and success of the respective presidencies that would relate to size of the administration or previous experience. |
