Opening Up the Black Box

The European Commission is the engine of the integration process in Europe. Despite its significant role in developing the internal market, little is known about the way it pursues the broad range of activities for which it was created. The study tries to fill this gap by understanding the Commission as a corporate actor capable of learning. It shows how the Commission creates its own space for decision-making apart from Member State control by accumulating, applying and storing advice from non-governmental experts. The study goes on to show that the consequent learning shapes the Commission's behaviour in the institutional environment affecting decisions on the implementation and development of European policies.