The self-perception of the EU executive

Sammanfattning: The aim of this paper is to describe the self-perception of the European Commission in terms of ideas portrayed in text of Political Guidelines formulated by three different Presidencies. The thesis analyses the Political Guidelines as formulated by three different European Commission Presidents; José Manuel Barrosso, Jean-Claude Juncker and Ursula von der Leyen. It uses a qualitative idea-analysis in order identify and describe ideas held by each President. The thesis then analyses how the different Commissions adhere to values relating to one hand, a technocratic ideal, on the other hand a political ideal. I have used theories of European integration, namely the theory of neofunctionalism as stated by Ernst B. Haas, the theory of The Normalized Executive by Anchrit Wille and the theory of Liberal Intergovernmentalism as stated by Andrew Moravcsik to explain how the ideas found in the analysis can be connected to wider theoretical school of thought. By creating triads consisting of statements of values, descriptive statement and prescriptive statements the analysis of the thesis has concluded that the three Commissions have had different ideas relating to the European Commissions role within the European Union, as well as describing a shift in ideas relating to the self-perception of the institution they are leading.