Crises and the Transformations of Executive Governance and Inter-Institutional Relations in the EU

"As of 2025, the European Union (EU) has been confronted with multiple crises and security threats. While Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is still ongoing, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has also not been settled. Transatlantic relations between the EU and the United States (US) under the second Trump administration are undergoing seismic shifts due to the unilateral imposition of tariffs. These challenges are cross-sectoral in nature and have the potential to threaten the stability and the resilience of the EU. Demands on the EU’s executive institutions to direct effective policy responses have thus increased in recent years, contributing to an executive turn in EU policy making. The European Council, the Council of the EU, and the European Commission have become central arenas for negotiating collective responses, balancing national and supranational interests, and redefining the scope of EU action. The literature has shown that the European Council is able to use crises to increase its powers. This includes exerting a predominant role over other institutions, for instance by influencing the Commission’s right of legislative initiative or by providing detailed instructions to the Council. Yet, since the adoption of the COVID-19 recovery fund, NextGenerationEU, the Commission has also managed to become more powerful, especially on fiscal governance. Last but not least, the European Parliament still has no proper decision-making powers in areas of core state powers such as fiscal, security and defence policy. This section examines how recent challenges, which are increasingly complex, contested, and politicised, influence EU executive governance. It furthermore invites reflection on the implications of changes in executive governance and inter-institutional relations for the accountability and democratic legitimacy of the EU. The section focuses primarily on two research tracks: 1. The crisis-induced changes of executive governance a. Conceptualisation: How can we conceptualise the multiple crises the EU has faced in recent years, from the Covid-19 pandemic to Russia’s war against Ukraine? Do different types of crises (health, economic, military, climate) have distinct or comparable effects on EU executive governance? To what extent have these crises functioned as triggers of institutional change within the EU? How can we theorise the renewed activism of the EU in domains traditionally reserved for ‘core state powers’, such as fiscal governance or defence Can we conceptualise changes in EU executive governance as permanent or a temporary deviation from established practices? b. Institutional transformation: Have recent crises reshaped the institutional balance of power in EU executive governance? How have inter-institutional relations been reconfigured in response to crises? Do we observe significant changes in intra-institutional politics? What factors account for the speed, scope, and direction of these institutional transformations? c. Democratic legitimacy and accountability: What are the implications of the executive turn for political legitimacy and democratic accountability in the EU? How do crisis-driven governance shifts affect the role of the European Parliament and national parliaments in ensuring accountability? 2. The crisis-induced inter-institutional relations a. Agenda-setting and decision-making in anti-crises policies: Who sets the agenda in today’s EU responses to crises, and what actors are the key decision-makers? More specifically, how powerful has the European Council been in recent crisis policymaking? b. Interaction between supranational and intergovernmental institutions: How do the European supranational and intergovernmental institutions interact—in terms of formal relations, informal practices, and intergovernmental bargaining—in shaping EU crisis management? c. Challenges to the (future) EU system of governance: How do EU institutions make effectiveness and efficiency co-exist with transparency and legitimacy, while balancing democratic and technocratic decision-making? How well-equipped are they do deal with growing levels of politicisation and contestation across member states when it comes to implement European policies? We welcome panels and papers featuring theoretical, conceptual, empirical, and comparative contributions that address any of these questions related to the above-mentioned tracks, in particular those that are interdisciplinary and use a plurality of approaches to research design. We encourage contributions on conceptualisation and measurement of key concepts because, while executive governance and inter-institutional relations have been studied empirically and theoretically over time, we still lack an in-depth conceptualisation in a context of permacrisis. Young researchers are explicitly encouraged to contribute. "