EU Commission Cabinets: Past and Present

How do EU Commission cabinets function internally and in relation to the Eurocracy? Have they changed over time? In this essay, two sociologists share their ethnographic experience in Commission cabinets at very different points in time: at the end of the Cold War with Jacques Delors (1991) and during the “polycrisis” with Pierre Moscovici (2015-2019). They compare notes on access to fieldwork and research conditions and highlight similarities and differences that have marked the history of French-led Commission cabinets with regards to the sociology of members, the role of politics, insertion in the Brussels bubble, and relations with capitals.