Principal Agent Model and the European Union

Tom Delreux is Professor of EU Politics at the Institut de Sciences Politiques Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE) at the University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve), Belgium.Johan Adriaensen is Research Coordinator at the Center for European Research in Maastricht (CERiM) at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

• Preface - Mark Pollack.- 1. Introduction - Tom Delreux and Johan Adriaensen.- 2. The principal-agent model, accountability and democratic legitimacy - Gijs Jan Brandsma and Johan Adriaensen.- 3. Non-exclusive delegation to the European External Action Service - Hylke Dijkstra.- 4. Direct and indirect control on the Council by the European Council - Daniella Kroll.- 5. Effects of contestation within a collective agent in EU trade policy-making - Markus Gastinger.- 6. Agent interaction as a source of discretion for the High Representative - Niklas Helwig.- 7. Impact of the agent’s environment on discretion in the field of EU conflict resolution - Arne Niemann and Friedrich Planck.- 8. Multiple principals preferences, different types of oversight mechanisms, and agent’s discretion in trade negotiations - Eugenia da Conceicão-Heldt.- 9. Agents as information asymmetry managers in EU trade policy-making - Evelyn Coremans and Bart Kerremans.- 10. Process-tracing as a tool to analyse discretion - Yf Reekers and Derek Beach.- 11. Conclusions - Johan Adriaensen and Tom Delreux.- Index.