The EU Commission is commonly held to be staffed by powerful bureaucrats. Their power is not evident in the development of decrees. In some types of decrees, above all those that the Commission can issue in its own name, the Commission bureaucracy’s role is tightly circumscribed by procedural and other constraints that limit their role in shaping the main contours of everyday policy. In other types of decree, above all those that require Council and Parliament approval, the role of the bureaucrat is closely circumscribed by the political leadership. On closer inspection the two big powers of...

The EU Commission is commonly held to be staffed by powerful bureaucrats. Their power is not evident in the development of decrees. In some types of decrees, above all those that the Commission can issue in its own name, the Commission bureaucracy’s role is tightly circumscribed by procedural and other constraints that limit their role in shaping the main contours of everyday policy. In other types of decree, above all those that require Council and Parliament approval, the role of the bureaucrat is closely circumscribed by the political leadership. On closer inspection the two big powers of the Commission bureaucracy, of agenda setting and making decrees in its own name, seem to bestow remarkably little scope for independent action on its bureaucrats.