THE EUROPEAN-COUNCIL AND THE COUNCIL-OF-THE-EUROPEAN-UNION - SHAPERS OF A EUROPEAN CONFEDERATION

The European Council and the Council of the European Union play key ro les in the European Union.(1) The European Council is largely concerne d with system-steering, while the Council of the EU undertakes sectora l policymaking. What is common to these roles is the balancing act car ried out by both institutions. Both have to mediate the centripetal dy namics of integration, termed cooperative confederalism here, and the centrifugal dynamics which are found in the strongly entrenched territ orial nature of power, centered on the member slates. Using new instit utionalist analysis, the article illuminates different facets of the t wo institutions' functioning in mediating the two dynamics.