INTBUS 6 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Comitology, European Political Party, Primary And Secondary Legislation
15 Oct 2020
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ASSIGNMENT 8 – EU debates on democratic deficit
Arguments for democratic deficit
- Smismans: EU has been built on outcome legitimacy (based only on outcomes), no concern about
input legitimacy (participation of citizens) → CJEU gained supremacy through direct effect,
Commission more and more influent
- Power of parliament (directly elected) is not enough to control commission (which is executive power)
p.341
- EU is actually more od a supranational polity but hasn’t got one common ‘demos’ → no common
identity or loyalty, no European public sphere
o European political parties are weak as are elections for parliament
- EP has no power of legislative initiative (p.344)
- Too much focus on ‘representative democracy rather than participatory one (345) debate on
governance
- Delegated legislation: legislator delegate decision-making to governments for quicker implementation
→ decision-making out of hands of elected representatives → processes take too long in the end
- Comitology can be criticised for acting without involvement of politicians, can be called deliberative
supranationalism → EP and Council cannot control implementing acts taken care of by comitology
committees (345)
- New legislative procedure: OMC (doesn’t involve parliament) (but then again allows national action as
not legally binding)
- Civil society not necessarily respected → big influence of lobbyists as more money and resources
(p.346)
- Governance system is so complicated that it is reserved to informed elite
- 2008 crisis → gave EU more control over national budgets as a solution → big transfer of sovereignty
o Emphasis on lack of European demos
o Greek crisis and arising Euroscepticism (p.349)
- Moravsik: (genuinely against the notion of democratic deficit)
o Technocratic nature of EU Regulation → role played y non-elected officials (only EP is elected) p.4
- Great autonomy of EU officials in specific areas (p.11)
- Political bias of EU (p.15)
- Enlargement: admitting countries with non-similar democratisation processes (17-18) threats of heterogeneity
and political diversity (18
- Independence of ECB
- Rights of immigrants (could turn more restrictive than European norms)
- Administrative procedures (diverging rights for US expats)
- Follesdal : actions taken by nationally elected executive within the EU agents are beyond control of national
parliaments (their power thus decreases with the EU) (p.3)
- European Parliament is too weak,( so its power increased in the 90s)
o Governments are still agenda-setters in appointment of the Commission (executives not elected by the
EP)
- There are no real European elections : EP or Council elections are not about personalities, parties or direction of
political agendas → more second -order national contests (p.4)
- EU is too distant for voters → don’t address citizen’s preferences → low turnouts and dissatisfaction in
referendums
- Decision of Council often in secret (p.4)
Document Summary
Assignment 8 eu debates on democratic deficit. Smismans: eu has been built on outcome legitimacy (based only on outcomes), no concern about input legitimacy (participation of citizens) cjeu gained supremacy through direct effect, Power of parliament (directly elected) is not enough to control commission (which is executive power) p. 341. Eu is actually more od a supranational polity but hasn"t got one common demos" no common identity or loyalty, no european public sphere: european political parties are weak as are elections for parliament. Ep has no power of legislative initiative (p. 344) Too much focus on representative democracy rather than participatory one (345) debate on governance. Delegated legislation: legislator delegate decision-making to governments for quicker implementation. Decision-making out of hands of elected representatives processes take too long in the end. Comitology can be criticised for acting without involvement of politicians, can be called deliberative supranationalism ep and council cannot control implementing acts taken care of by comitology committees (345)
