“The Rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union – from Empirical Facts towards Expert Evaluation”

There is no such thing as unsuccessful rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union – this rather humorous maxim, which is widely popular among academic and political
experts on European affairs, has the potential to discourage any attempt at evaluating the Presidency. Meanwhile, it is precisely this barrier of political correctness that underlines how
important it is to evaluate the Presidency objectively. There is an unambiguous answer to the question why it is possible that every Presidency is successful – it is due to the lack of reliable evaluation methodology. This publication is an attempt to solve this task – to provide an objective evaluation of a rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union
– as a complex, multi-dimensional and dynamic object of research,
– with limited and often inconsistent academic tradition in this regard,
– and with all related logistic, bureaucratic and ethical problems, stemming from the work of a recent political object of research.

The Rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union – from Empirical Facts towards Expert Evaluation