Public deliberations in the Council of Ministers of the European Union: DICEU and beyond

Abstract

The panel "Public Deliberations in the Council of Ministers of the European Union: DICEU and beyond" brings to the fore critical examinations of decision-making within the European Union's (EU) central legislative body, the Council of Ministers. Comprising a series of papers that blend political science with computational linguistics, the panel scrutinises the subtleties of intergovernmental bargaining, the impact of public opinion, gender dynamics in negotiation, and language usage during crises. Julian Hoerner and Christopher Wratil's paper investigates the influence of issue salience on EU member states' bargaining behaviour, positing that the diversity of issues deemed important by the public can significantly sway both contention and concord within the Council. By analysing a newly extended version of the DICEU dataset of public deliberations, they illuminate the intricate relationship between national public opinion and EU policy outcomes. James P. Cross and Martijn Schoonvelde explore how the concreteness of language in policy debates may serve as a strategic tool for ministers to justify their positions. Using a novel concreteness measure developed with GPT-4, they expose systematic variations that shed light on the rhetoric of Council deliberations. Paula Montano delves into the lexicon of emergency politics, examining how crises influence the EU elites' communication strategies. Through a focused text analysis, Montano uncovers the triggers for emergency language during the Euro crisis, revealing insights into the EU's governance mode under duress. Tuuli-Anna Huikuri and Tom Hunter’s contribution assesses the effects of increasing female participation in the Council's negotiations, questioning traditional assumptions about gendered negotiation styles and strategies. Lastly, Jens Wäckerle and Hauke Licht's paper links domestic public opinion to international negotiation behaviour, presenting evidence of how polarisation within member states affects the EU's decision-making processes.

Title	Details
Issue Salience and Bargaining in the Council of the EU	View Paper Details
Set in stone? Exploring the role of precision and vagueness in intergovernmental deliberations in the Council of Ministers of the European Union	View Paper Details
Grandstanding under the Spotlight: Unveiling Elites Crisis Communication in the Council of the European Union	View Paper Details
Women in International Negotiations: Evidence from the Council of the European Union	View Paper Details
How Public Opinion Polarisation Shapes Conflict in International Negotiations: Evidence from Debates in the Council of the European Union	View Paper Details