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The EU’s capacity to act: Constitutional design and institutional practice

Bruno De Witte

Common Market Law Review2026https://doi.org/10.54648/cola2026006article
ABDC B
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Arguably, the European Union’s most basic good is its capacity to effectively deal with problems that have a European or global dimension. Whilst effective public policies depend on so much else than the existence of an appropriate constitutional framework, the constitutional design is an important contributing factor. The EU’s constitutional design displays a number of constraints limiting the EU’s capacity to act, such as the legal basis requirement or the unanimity rule on Council decision-making. Formal institutional reforms to preserve the EU’s capacity to act are difficult and politically unlikely, but the recent institutional practice shows that the EU’s capacity to act in the face of crises and new challenges can be preserved thanks to creative legal interpretations of the constitutional text.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.54648/cola2026006

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@article{bruno2026,
  title        = {{The EU’s capacity to act: Constitutional design and institutional practice}},
  author       = {Bruno De Witte},
  journal      = {Common Market Law Review},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.54648/cola2026006},
}

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The EU’s capacity to act: Constitutional design and institutional practice

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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