How Much Do Experts’ Ideas Matter for the European Union’s Political Agenda?

I recently contributed an article to the Critical Debate section of Journal of Common Market Studies’s Annual Review Issue (2025).
In it, I focus on how and whether experts' ideas matter in general; and then discusses why the Letta and Draghi reports substantively matter for the EU political agenda. In so doing, I demonstrate the persuasive power of expert reports not only as a result of what they say but also how they say it, that is, through narratives and framing, and to whom they say it, that is, the people included in the reports' construction and the audiences targeted in their communication. My contribution also points to the potential limits to the reports' impact resulting from underlying ideological blinders or strategic omissions.