The President of the European Council and the quest for an EU democracy by Dorian Kroqi A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2015 Dorian Kroqi Abstract This dissertation deals with the impact of institutional reform on the democratic process. In particular, it examines the effects of the office of the Permanent President of the European Council on the democratic process in the EU’s multilevel polity. The Office of the President of the European Council is the outcome of the reform of the European Treaties concluded at Lisbon in 2007. The Permanent President is a statesman appointed by the heads of states and governments who are the members of the European Council. The President’s main tasks include the chairmanship of the European Council summits, the management of its work in between the summits, and representation of the European Council in the international sphere. The Permanent President replaced the rotating regime of the European Council chairmanship, which allowed each of its members to control the European Council agenda for a brief half-year stint. In terms of theoretical framework, this dissertation adopts three theories of democracy, republican, discursive and liberal. I apply these three theories to a conception of democratic government consisting of three elements: the government of the people, government by the people, and the government for the people. I focus on the government by the people and the government for the people. I conceptualize the government for the people as an interaction between efficiency and accountability and the government by the people as an interaction between deliberation and participation. I analyze the behaviour of the President of the European Council by evaluating his ability to foster a positive relationship between efficiency and accountability, on the one hand, and between deliberation and participation, on the other. A positive relationship between efficiency and accountability is one in which the President's constantly improving performance is matched by a number of institutional processes that hold him to account. A positive relationship between deliberation and participation is one in which the ability of the President to encourage dialogue and discussion among policymakers and stakeholders is accompanied by his willingness and efforts to make the policy process more accessible and inclusive. This analysis will reveal whether the new office of the President of the European Council is contributing to or impairing the democratization of the EU. I define the Office of the President of the European Council as an institution with executive functions. Overall, the study of the executive institutions of the European Union such as the Commission or the rotating Presidency has rarely been considered from the perspective of democratic theory. This dissertation seeks to be a contribution in this direction. I argue that the emergence of the Permanent President of the European Council has contributed to a negative efficiency-accountability relationship. He is an efficient chair and a better agent to the members of the European Council, However, he is virtually unaccountable to any other EU institution or the citizenry. Moreover, the emergence of the Permanent President has contributed to a negative deliberation-participation relationship. The Permanent President encourages deliberation in restricted fora but has not developed adequate instruments for reaching to and involving civil society and the citizenry in the generation of ideas and the formulation of policies. I bring out a number of factors accounting for this pattern. They are the irrelevance of the national public sphere in the President's selection and appointment, the absence of specific Treaty provisions and practices that would require the Permanent President to engage i with civil society and citizenry, and the perception that various actors have about the position of the Permanent President in the EU's institutional configuration. ii Acknowledgments I want to thank all the people who have been with me during these years. From an academic vantage point, I want to thank the members of my committee: my supervisor, Prof. Achim Hurrelmann and Professors Joan DeBardeleben and Hans-Martin Jaeger. My brother, Skerdi, has been of enormous support during these difficult years. I also want to thank the friends I made here in Ottawa, especially Andrea Wagner and Alda Kokallaj. iii Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgments iii Abbreviations and Acronyms v Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Methodology 67 Chapter 3: Efficiency 86 Chapter 4: Accountability 135 Chapter 5: Deliberation 215 Chapter 6: Participation 263 Chapter 7: Conclusion 301 Bibliography 312 iv Abbreviations and Acronyms AFCO - European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs AFET - uropean Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs ADIE - Association pour le droit à l'initiative économique, (eng), Association for economic intiative BDI - Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie e. V., (eng), The Federal Association of German Industries BE - Business Europe BSE - Bovine spongiform encephalopathy CA - Communicative Action CAP -Common Agricultural Policy CDU/CSU - Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands und Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern, (eng) Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Christian Social Union of Bavaria CEE countries - Central Eastern European countries CEMR - Council of European Municipalities and Regions CEP-CMAF - the European Standing Conference of Cooperatives, Mutual Societies, Associations and Foundations CES - Confédération européenne des syndicats CESI - European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions CFSP - Common Foreign and Security Policy CIFE - Centre International de Formation Européenne v CJEU- Court of Justice of the European Union CONECCS - Consultation, the European Commission and Civil Society database COPA-COGECA - Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations and General Committee for Agricultural Cooperation in the European Union CoR - Committee of the Regions Coreper - Comité des représentants permanents, (eng) Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union COSAC - Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union CSO - civil society organisations DGB - Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, (eng) German Trade Unions Federation DG ECFIN - Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs EANP - European Antipoverty Network EC - European Community ECB - European Central Bank ECDPM - European Centre for Development Cooperation ECI - European Citizens` Initiative ECON - The European Parliament Committee for Monetary and Economic Affairs ECRI - European Conference on Research Infrastructures EDP - Excessive Deficit Procedure EESC - European Economic and Social Committee EFC - Economic and Financial Committee EFD - Europe of Freedom and Democracy vi EMPL - The European Parliament Committee for Employment and Social Affairs EMU - Economic and Monetary Union EP - European Parliament ERT - European Roundtable of Industrialists ESCs - Economic and Social Councils ESFRI - European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures ESM - European Stability Mechanism ETUC - European Trade Union Confederation EU - European Union GDP - Gross Domestic Product GUE/NGL - Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left IEM - International European Movement IGC - Intergovernmental Conference HDI - Human Development Index IMF- International Monetary Fund JEF - Young European Federalists JURI - The European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs MEP - Member of the European Parliament MFF- Multiannual Financial Framework MMO - Milk Market Observatory NGOs - Non-governmental Organizations NRPs - National Reform Programmes OMC - Open Method of Coordination vii PAC - Partnership and Cooperation Agreement PFCS - Permanent Forum of Civil Society PP - Permanent President PPEWU - Policy Planning and Early Warning Unit RELEX - Working Party of Foreign Relations Counsellors RT News - Russia Today News QMV - Qualified Majority Voting SAP - Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti, (eng) Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party SGAE - Le Secrétariat général des affaires européennes, (eng) General Secretariat of European Affairs SGP - Stability and Growth Pact SINAPSE E-Network - Scientific Information for Policy Support in Europe SPD - Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, (eng) Social Democratic Party of Germany SSM - Single Supervisory Mechanism TCA - Theory of Communicative Action TCE - Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe TEU - Treaty on European Union TFEG - Task Force on European Governance TFEU - Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union TSS - Tripartite Social Summit UEF - The Union of European Federalists UEN - Union for Europe of the Nations viii UK - United Kingdom VENRO - Dachverband der Entwicklungspolitischen und Humanitären Nichtregierungsorganisationen, (eng) Umbrella organisation of development non- governmental organisations (NGOs) in Germany. VLD - Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten WTO - World Trade Organization ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This dissertation will analyze the impact that the creation of the Office of the President of the European Council– also called Permanent President of the European Council – has had on the democratic process. The office was created through