The role of a governmental think tank on the policy-process on institutional reforms resulting in the Lisbon Treaty.

This draft aims to analyze the role of a governmental think tank on the policy-process on institutional reforms resulting in the Lisbon Treaty. On 1st December 2009, the Lisbon Treaty entered into force. This latter has substantial impact on the European governance, largely due to central institutional changes. As outlined in the title, this draft analyzes the European governance through the Lisbon Treaty. Governance is generally defined as a co-production mode of decision-making among different types of actors. This governance will be analyzed through a specific actor willing to contribute to policy-making : the think tank, or research institute; defined as an organization generating policy-oriented research in an effort to enable policymakers to make informed decisions about public policy issues. Based on a theoretical framework on the influence of think tanks in Germany developed by Thunert, we hypothesize that strategies developed by the BEPA have a stronger visibility at the issue articulation stage; and a medium visibility at the policy formulation and policy implementation stages. This theoretical framework has been developed at a meso level. The purpose of this draft is to test it at a macro level: the EU level. The analysis of the governmental think tank will also enrich our understanding of the relationship between the BEPA and the European Commission. Do we face an instrumentalization by the European Commission of the BEPA? We might hypothesize that the European Commission uses the competencies developed by the BEPA in order to meet its own interests. Think tank could have an impact on three different stages (issue articulation, policy formulation and policy implementation). The model developed by Thunert could be transposed to the political process that led to the Lisbon Treaty; from the Laeken Declaration in 2001 to the signature of the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. On basis of a sequential analysis, working groups – were selected: the Amato group, the Convention on the Future of Europe; the Round table on “A sustainable project for tomorrow’s Europe”, also known as Strauss-Kahn report; and the Amato group