Influencing Policy Production in the European Union: The European Commission Before the Court of Justice

The present paper addresses the role of the European Commission in shaping policy produced in the European Union. Most related studies have focussed on the Commission’s positions in legislative or executive politics. However, there appears to be an underresearched interrelation between the actions of the Commission in legislative and judicial policy-making that may form the basis for its continued influence. This paper therefore investigates the relationship between the actions of the European Commission in legislative and judicial procedures in the European Union. Given the extraordinary success of the European Commission before the European Court of Justice revealed by recent research, the question arises how the Commission uses its privileged position before the Court to influence policy development. It is hypothesised that the Commission exerts influence on policy production at the European level through both of these ‘modes of policy making’. I test my hypothesis by analysing Commission action in the field of social security