With the launch of the European integration process after World War II, a new type of administration emerged which was neither an international organisation nor a national administration. Drawing on extensive archival records and oral history interviews, this book is the first comprehensive study of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC), and their personnel, the European civil servants. This administrative elite was to have a vital influence on the European integration process, devising and administering key European policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy. Katja Seidel combines administrative and biographical history and provides significant insights into the origins of Europe's supranational institutions and the administrative cultures that developed in them. She effectively shows how European administrative elites and supranational administrations are vital to understanding the process of politics in Europe. This book will be invaluable for scholars of politics, history and the development of European integration.

Introduction PART I: THE HIGH AUTHORITY OF THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITYChapter 1. Establishing a supranational administration: Challenges and constraints 1.1 Organisation1.2 Working methods1.3 Recruitment patternsChapter 2. Towards a European administrative elite? The first European civil servants2.1 The officials' biographical background2.2 Living and working in Luxembourg2.3 Biographies of High Authority officialsPART II: THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITYChapter 3. Prudence and Pragmatism: the institutional establishment of the Commission3.1 The institutional set-up of the Commission3.2 The establishment of practices and working methods3.3 Recruitment patterns and personnel policy3.4 Inflexibility, inefficiency and dissatisfaction: reforming the administrationChapter 4. Biographical studies: high officials in the Commission4.1 Internal factors of Europeanization: biographical background4.2 Space and time: external factors of Europeanization4.3 Biographies of Commission officials4.4 Identities, images and roles of Commission officialsChapter 5. Institutions, administrative cultures and their role in EU policy-making: the Directorates-General for Agriculture and Competition5.1 Step One: The legacy of context and previous experiences5.2 Step Two: The emergence of administrative cultures5.3 Step Three: Socialisation processes in DG Agriculture and DG Competition Conclusions