AUTONOMY BY THE RULES - THE EUROPEAN-COMMISSION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE AID POLICY

The European Commission has enhanced its autonomy to implement state a id policy with a superstructure of frameworks and guidelines construct ed on the base of its Treaty-derived competence. The Commission's acti vism has also mobilized private sector actors whose interest in state aid monitoring reinforces the Commission's claim to being a neutral en forcement agent. However, these constituencies have also made new dema nds on Commission resources that may constrain the Commission. This fi nding has important implications for the scope of historical instituti onalist analysis, which typically focuses on how Member State governme nts are constrained by past decisions. Ultimately the autonomy of supr anational institutions may be self-limiting, with emerging constraints deriving not from the preferences of Member State governments, but fr om the very structuring of the European polity fostered by the autonom ous actions of supranational institutions themselves.