The engines of European integration: delegation, agency, and agenda setting in the EU

In the fist part of the book, Pollack analyses the historical and functional patterns of delegation to the commission, the Court of Justice, and the Parliament, suggesting that delegation tot he first two is motivated by a desire to reduce the transaction costs of EU policy-making, as predicted by principal-agent models. By contrast, the delegation of powers to the Parliament fits poorly with such models, and primarily reflects the concern of member governments to enhance the democratic legitimacy of the Union. The second part of the book focuses on the role of supranational agents in both the liberalization and the re-regulation of the European market, and suggests that the Commission, Court, and Parliament have indeed played a causally important role alongside member governments as the engines of integration;but that their ability to do so has varied historically and across issue-areas as a function of the discretion delegated to them by the member governments.