EU institutions and Europe's politics

The European Union (EU) straddles accepted categories of political organization. It is neither a state nor an ordinary international organization. What sets the EU apart, perhaps above all, is its unique institutions: they resemble no other bodies found at the national or international level. We argue that Europe's institutions are Europe's politics. The point was illustrated by the crisis that began when the EU's Constitutional Treaty was soundly rejected in referenda held in France and the Netherlands in 2005. It continued when the Lisbon Treaty, which contained many of the Constitutional Treaty's institutional reforms, took years before it was finally ratified in late 2009. A new crisis in the Eurozone in 2010-11 led to pressures for institutional reform to create stronger economic governance. This paper introduces contending definitions of institution and presents competing approaches to studying them. It contends that understanding politics always begins with understanding institutions, not least in the EU.