Reforming the European Commission

Many international and supranational organisations have lately been busy modernising their internal administration. But nowhere has management change received a similar amount of attention than in the case of the European Commission. Although the perception prevails that the Commission has been losing out in recent years, this vivid interest, academic as well as public, in the so-called Kinnock reform suggests that this organisation still remains "at the heart of the Union". The proposition of this book thus is simple. If it remains true that the Commission is an essential part within the (admittedly complex) equation of EU policy-making, changes of the administration basis of this actor are likely to have broader implications. Consequently, this special issue poses three crucial questions about the recent administrative reform of the European Commission: why was such a comprehensive reform possible, what are its specific implications for the Commission as an organisation and what is the likely impact for the policy process?
In short, this book puts the organisational base of EU policy-making centre stage. In the quest for answers the authors of the subsequent chapters take distinct perspectives, use various research strategies and methods, and attempt to solve diverse empirical puzzles. But all attempt to add to our understanding of this organisational base, and how to systematically study it.
This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Michael W. Bauer is Assistant Professor for Comparative Public Policy and Administration at the Department of Politics and Management, University of Konstanz, Germany.

1 Introduction: Organizational Change, Management Reform and EU Policy-Making Michael W. Bauer
2 'Mission Impossible' but Mission Accomplished? The Kinnock Reforms and the European Commission Hussein Kassim
3 Explaining variation in organizational change: The reform of human resource management in the European Commission and the OECD Christoph Knill and Tim Balint
4 Diffuse Anxieties, Deprived Entrepreneurs. Commission Reform and Middle Management Michael W. Bauer
5 Reforming the Commission: Between modernization and bureaucratization Antonis Ellinas and Ezra Suleiman
6 Implementing Organizational Change - The Case of the Kinnock Reforms Emmanuelle Schön-Quinlivan
7 European Commission Reform and the Origins of the European Transparency Initiative Michelle Cini
8 Enlargement, Reform and the European Commission - Weathering a Perfect Storm? John Peterson