Presentation

The research will analyse a number of themes or events which have contributed, in a positive or negative way, to European integration. The themes will be approached through the experience of the actors, MEPs but also officials and politicians from all the EU institutions. Our primary source will be the documents and oral interviews, deposited in the Historical Archives of the EU, but also, new interviews, academic articles or personal memories collected by the researchers.

Potential themes to be treated  include the 1999 resignation of the Santer Commission and its significance for the development of accountability inside the EU; the 1990 Assizes in Rome and their impact on relations between EP and national parliaments; the role of the political groups in the 90ies and the emergence of the Grand Coalition; individual policy areas, such as Civil Liberties, Agriculture or the Environment and the impact the EP had on them as well as horizontal subjects such as  interinstitutional agreements and the development of soft law.