European Institute

This meeting was organized around a provocative new study entitled, Bargaining Power in the European Council, which closely examines the power matrices within the Council and provides rare insights into what it judges to be “in general, a hostile environment for small and medium-sized countries.” The author of this report, Jonas Tallberg, Associate Professor of Political Science, Stockholm University and Visiting Scholar at Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, presented his findings, and assessed the impact of the Reform Treaty on the sources of bargaining power within the Council. Søren Jensen, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Royal Danish Embassy, commented from the standpoint of a small Northern member of the EU. William Lucas, Director, Office of EU and Regional Affairs at the Department of State offered his perspective on the workings of the European Council and its role and impact on U.S.-EU relations. Mats Hellström, Chairman of the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies and former Minister of Foreign Trade of Sweden, discussed the increasing political, strategic and economic role of the Baltic Sea Region and the implications of this notable evolution for Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.