Navigating Complexity: Continuity and Change in European Governance, 2023/2024

This article was crafted shortly after a critical turning point, that is the institutional and political renewal process that began on 6–9 June 2024. During this period, nearly 400 million European citizens were entitled to elect the 720 Members of the 10th European Parliament (EP) Legislature. In the following weeks, crucial decisions were made regarding the EU’s top leadership positions. We argue that the 2024 renewal process was unusual, as it involved more political continuity than change, with the explicit aim of securing the survival of the European project amidst a proliferation of challenges. In this sense, it can be viewed as an unusual phase of (conservative) transition that managed to prevent radical alterations in the evolution of the EU’s trajectory by explicitly investing in continuity in leaders and dossiers. We identify five main continuities in both the degree and type of response from EU citizens to the challenge of institutional renewal (e.g., turnout and electoral results) and the outcomes (e.g., group formation, leadership positions and agenda-setting).