The Role of the European Council in the EU-Turkey Statement: Driven by Interests

Abstract

The core principle of intergovernmentalism has always been that the decisions and actions of EU Member States drive European integration. The EU’s normative decision-making process is centred on supranational mechanisms. This leads to a confrontation between new intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. The 2015 refugee crisis demonstrated that domestic concerns significantly influenced EU integration. Therefore, this article examines the power of the European Council in the conclusion of the EU-Turkey Statement (2016), which is pertinent to the continuing discussion on the function of the European Council in the context of the increasing new intergovernmentalism of the EU.

Keywords

• eu migration law
• european council
• eu-turkey statement
• syrian refugee crisis
• new intergovernmentalism
• migration governance