What is there to legitimize in the European Union … and how might this be accomplished?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the 'problematique' of building the legitimacy (one of the most used and misused concepts in Political Science) of governance (one of the most fashionable concepts in contemporary political discourse) within the context of the European Union (one of the most novel of political experiments). Whether intentionally or not, the EU has become a formidable producer of such arrangements, but lacks a “formula” for their legitimation. The author presents three sets of principles that might be used to guide the design of European Governance Arrangements (EGAs) in order to enhance their legitimacy. He concludes with some caveats, underlining inter alia that EGAs will not resolve all policy issues in the supra-national realm, and they will not work unless firmly based on explicitly political choices involving their charter, the composition of participants and the rules for decision-making. Purely technocratic or administrative considerations will not suffice.