Abstract

This research examines the current institutional structures of the executive-legislative relationship in the EU from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. That is not just examining how the institutions are linked theoretically or even in the formal structural sense, but also their functional political and policy relationship in terms of what they actually do. The character and performance of the EU executive-legislative relationship is analyzed from a comparative perspective in light of the current reforms introduced both in the Lisbon Treaty and in the academic realm among scholars lobbying for institutional reform. The goal of the research is to achieve not just an empirically founded understanding of the current executive-legislative relationship in the EU, but also to obtain an empirical grounding for the current dialog regarding the need for institutional reform in the EU. The goal of this research is to build a bridge between the two parallel empirical and theoretical literatures regarding EU institutions that currently exist.