Download or read book The Appointment of the President of the European Commission written by Yvonne M. Nasshoven and published by Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft Mbh & Company. This book was released on 2011 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the increasing number of treaty reforms since the beginning of the 1990s, the appointment process of the President of the European Commission, as well as of the European Commissioners, has strongly been altered in the "written constitution" of the EU. Yet, before the various reforms had been introduced, the appointment of the Commission President in particular, and of political personnel in the European Union in general, has often been reproached as being untransparent. As this leaves the 'black box' of political decision-making difficult to access, scientific approaches to the choice of political leaders are mostly missing in the acquis academique - mechanisms of personnel selection are under-researched as they take place behind closed doors and can hardly be traced. Nevertheless, profiles matter in the political process. Characteristics, preferences, and interests of those in power shape political offices and set the agenda. The research in this dissertation contributes to the study of personnel selection. It does so by identifying general patterns surrounding the appointment of the Commission President. Dissertation.