The study being presented examines the information flows between actors and committees in the Council of Ministers of the EU during legislative negotiations. We first provide a descriptive account of the network that emerges from the flow of information be- tween actors, and the relative centrality of different actors and committees within this network. We then examine how this network has evolved over time by considering two major exogenous shocks to the network. The first of these shocks is embodied by EU treaty revisions that have impacted upon the formal balance of power between actors negotiating within the Council. The second is related to EU enlargement that introduced a significant number of new actors into Council politics. Our findings suggest that there are significant network dynamic in play in Council politics, that supranational actors play an important role in reducing transaction costs during negotiations, and that these internal network dynamics have evolved over time.

A summary of the paper and interactive versions of the graphs being presented can be found here:

http://erdos.ucd.ie/eu/council