‘Porous’ Bureaucracies? External Interaction, Social Influence and Governance Preferences in the European Commission and the Council Secretariat

EU bodies and the people who work for them are often considered remote and unresponsive. While the European Commission is depicted as a distant technocracy, the Council Secretariat is viewed as secretive and introspective. This chapter puts these assumptions to the empirical test and finds against the accepted wisdoms. Drawing on two original datasets, it maps patterns of interaction with external actors for both parts of the EU administration. It shows not only that the European Commission and Council Secretariat are in constant contact with outside actors but that their preferences about whether decision-making authority should be located at the EU or at national level are affected, even if the governance preferences of staff in the Council Secretariat are less influenced.