The institutional architecture of the European Union: emerging and unresolved questions

This review article discusses three books that analyse in depth recent trends in the institutional architecture of the European Union. The three books focus, respectively, on the relations between legislatives and executive at the supranational level and within the member states, the self-empowerment strategies of the European Parliament, and the leadership performance of the President of the European Commission. Against this background, the review article makes some points on the state of the art of the institutional system of the EU twelve years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The multiple crises that have affected the EU over the last decade have somewhat affected the functioning of its institutions. Meanwhile, any analysis of the European institutional system should fully consider the composite nature of the European constitution and the peculiar interplay of formal and informal institutional change that has marked its evolution.