The main objective of this chapter is to show, in accordance with the editedvolume’s conceptual framework, how the economic and financial crisis has producedinstitutional change in the EU and how this change had impacted thetheoretical debate. It is structured in three sections.In section 1, I will map the main features of supranationalism and intergovernmentalismas institutional methods (and not theories) to demonstrate that, in the long term, the EU polity can be explained as a recurrent balancing actbetween the two methods.In section 2, I will show how the economic and financial crisis between 2008and 2012 has produced change in the power of the EU member states, reinforcingthe power of some and decreasing the power of others. The fluctuated powerof the member states is one dimension of what Sabine Saurugger and FabienTerpan name institutional density, conceived as ‘a dynamic concept, implyingfluidity and movement’.In section 3, I will show how the economic and financial crisis forces the EUscholars to reassess their theoretical approaches. The emergence of de novo institutionscreated by the member states to respond and manage the crisis makes theargument of a new intergovernmentalist theory valid. In this case, the substantiveintergovernmentalism is not used to describe an institutional method, but isa theoretical account to explain the EU institutional change.
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