Sources of Member States' Power in the Council of the European Union: The Contemporary State of Research

Abstract

Power as a concept has been at the centre of attention of social sciences for
a long time. Yet our understanding of power remains elusive. The Council of
the European Union is a body where the main actors, Member States,
exercise power in order to influence the decisionmaking and its outcome.
Their basic aim is to defend the national interests. The primary objective of
this article is to offer an overview of the Member States' sources of power in
the Council, based on a review of the latest literature. We present both
structural and procedural sources of power. Then we explain that the
exercise of power depends also on concrete sectors and cases in which the
actors negotiate. Our text confirms that the results of various research
endeavours have often been contradictory and that continuing research is
needed in order to deepen the knowledge of Council decision-making.