The European Council—A Shapeshifting Crisis Handler

ABSTRACT The question that this article addresses is: What is the role of the European Council (EUCO) in the European Union (EU)'s crisis handling? The EUCO as an organization is a meso‐level phenomenon, so that the analysis of EUCO's role in crisis handling is about a meso‐level organization's handling of crises. The article will show that EUCO is a distinct type of body, namely what is here referred to as a shapeshifting body. All organizations can change aspects of their form or shape (change mandate, change message, change personnel, shift their orientation to other organizations and contexts, and change functions and form), but only some quite distinct organizations qualify as shapeshifters. Criteria for what constitutes such a body are developed and EUCO is assessed against them. The key argument that is presented here is that EUCO's character as a shapeshifting body profoundly affects its crisis handling. An important part of EUCO's rationale was to increase the EU's ability to deal with internal and external challenges and crises. The specifics of that are shown from an analysis of how EUCO grappled with the financial turned Eurozone crisis.