This presentation gives an overview of decision-making in the European Union, with a particular focus on how the EU resolves political controversy during the decision-making process. The diverse political actors involved in EU decision-making - the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the member states - frequently have different interests and make competing policy demands on controversial issues. The following two important questions will be addressed: what types of controversies arise, and how are these controversies resolved? In answering these questions, Dr Thomson will consider some key findings from his recent research on EU decision-making, including research that focuses on the effects of the recent enlargements of the EU, an enlargement which in turn has an effect on the wider external presence of the Union.

Dr Robert Thomson is a Senior Lecturer and Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He has published extensively on many aspects of decision-making in the European Union as well as national politics and policy-making in Europe. He is co-editor of The European Union Decides (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and has published articles in leading political science journals, including the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, the European Journal of Political Research, European Union Politics and the Journal of European Public Policy.