"Behind the Council agenda: The supranational shaping of decisions"

Institutional analyses of the Council’s decision-making normally treat this arena in isolation, focusing on the decision rules and the Commission’s agenda-setting powers. In this paper I argue that decision-making in the Council may be ill-understood when neglecting the supranational legal context in which it is situated. The direct applicability of the Treaty’s rules, often actively furthered by the Commission, may make the status quo untenable, putting pressure for an agreement on the Council. I give several examples for the ways in which the Commission may use its rights as a guardian of the Treaty and an administrator of competition law to alter the preferences of member states in favour of a Council agreement