The new intergovernmentalism and the response of the EU’s joint executive to major cross-sectoral policy challenges: the fight against climate change and the war in Ukraine

The 2019-2024 institutional cycle saw the EU being confronted with major policy challenges which have affected multiple domains of policy-making simultaneously and which have required new forms cross-sectoral policy coordination, which needs to be maintained over longer periods of time. Contrary to the euro crisis, decision-making has not been concentrated in one particular policy domain but has cut across diverse policy fields, such as environment and agriculture, transport and energy, finances and foreign policy. Moreover, cross-sectoral policy coordination linked rather than separated traditional domains of regulatory policy-making under the community method with areas of intergovernmental policy coordination. This paper analyses the impact of these policy challenges on core dynamics of integration. Most importantly, it revisits the distinction between old and new areas of EU policy-making, one of the central concepts within the new intergovernmentalism. The paper demonstrates that while initially focused on domains of intergovernmental policy coordination the theory of new intergovernmentalism can provide crucial insights into contemporary EU legislative politics, which are linked to some of the EU’s most difficult contemporary policy challenges. It is shown how the European Council, the Commission and the Council act as a joint EU executive. The actions of these institutions are based on the centralisation of political oversight powers around the Commission presidency and the European Council while placing a premium on broad intergovernmental consensus. The paper is based on a new set of expert interviews with protagonists from the EU’s core executive institutions and the review of policy documents. The research helps to understand the inherent linkages between the consensus norm in EU decision-making and the contemporary practice of qualified majority as well as unanimity decision-making in the Council.