The Development of Agencies at EU and National Levels: Conceptual Analysis and Proposals for Reform

Géradin, Damien; Petit, Nicolas

doi:10.2139/ssrn.489722

Cited by 54 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…82 However, the principle of political equality must be respected and participation has to be designed so as to avoid political gridlock or the so-called agency capture by strong, organized groups. 83 Moreover, making the Union more flexible is of democratic relevance. 84 It allows a democratic national majority to be respected, without, however, permitting this national majority, which is a European minority, to frustrate the will of the European majority.…”

Section: Beyond Representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

EU Insights for Political Inclusion in International Institutions

Bogdandy

2017

Global Policy

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This text approaches the issue of strengthening the democratic legitimacy of international institutions from a comparative legal perspective. It argues that Articles 9 to 12 of the Treaty on European Union can help to conceptualize and develop the elements of such democratic legitimation. The core statement of this contribution is: A democratization of governance beyond the state, in particular in the sense of a better political inclusion of citizens in the exercise of public authority by international institutions, can well be theoretically conceived and practically realized.

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Section: Beyond Representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

EU Insights for Political Inclusion in International Institutions

Bogdandy

2017

Global Policy

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“…'Efficiency' is the leading criterion within a modern regulatory paradigm that seeks to refashion regulation in order to separate out the pursuit of general re-distributive goals from sectoral regulatory aims. Assuming a higher normative commitment to autonomous market operation, efficiency based regulatory models argue that the statist tendency to a political economy of 'corporatism' -distorting conflation of micro-economic market regulation with redistributive macro-economic 11 Never a comitology fan or concerned that its competences might be surreptitiously siphoned off to the Commission in the fog of committee proceedings (Bradley St Claire 1997), Parliament is similarly wary that its competences may be ceded to powerful agency heads (Geradin & Petit 2004).…”

Section: Autonomy and Accountability In The Eu Agency Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, EU agencies are only ever 'semi-autonomous', independent in fact rather that law, operating under the umbrella of the European Commission, which retains a final decision-making power. The strict application of Meroni is often regarded as an outdated anomaly within EU governance structures: a barrier to pragmatic institutional evolution (Geradin & Petit 2004). However, the sensitivity that attaches to a principle of the balance of powers is explained by the on-going tension between supranational integration interests and national sovereignty.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Technology of Expertise: EU Financial Services Agencies

Everson

2012

SSRN Journal

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The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 ushered in a financial crisis whose ramifications are still being felt. Within the EU, collapse not only led to a change in regulatory rhetoric, emphasising the need to secure the stability of EU money markets, but also to a significant widening and deepening of technocratic supervisory structures for European financial services. This paper accordingly investigates the newly established European System for Financial Supervision and, in particular, semi-autonomous EU agencies for banking, insurance and securities, for its ability to provide robust regulation and supervision within Europe. However, it analyses this increase in technocratic governance at supranational level in light of the worrying question of whether it has undermined capacity for political action within Europe. At a time when readily-apparent failings in established technocratic governance in Europe (monetary union) have led only to more technocratisation (proposed fiscal union), perhaps to the point of systemic collapse, the general European trend to expertled and evidence-based supervision must be doubted; not simply because it has failed on its own terms, but also because it has established a technology of expertise, or dominant rationality, which further encourages abdication of political responsibility for economic crisis.

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“…But while there have been a number of waves of new European agencies, as noted above, they have generally not conformed to Majone's ideal of the powerful and independent regulator. Rather they are satellite organisations to the Commission and, set against the frequent claim that they are instruments of decentralisation (Geradin and Petit 2003), their effect in many domains, such as environment and food safety, appears to be to consolidate the centralised power of the Commission (Scott 2005).…”

Section: New Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

New-ish Governance and the Legitimacy of the EU

Scott

2007

SSRN Journal

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Abstract:The way the EU is governed and the way such governance is perceived contributes centrally to the legitimacy of the European enterprise. This legitimacy underpins both the acceptance and the effects of EU activity. Legitimacy is a product of the way in which decisions are taken and the nature of quality of such decisions. Pressures created by concerns about both forms of legitimacy affecting EU decision making partially explain the turn in legal scholarship away from the more traditional preoccupation with the analysis of legislative instruments and case law towards a more broadly based conception of governance which involves the examination of a more diverse range of processes and instruments. This paper offers an analysis of the parameters of newness in governance. The overall argument is that some of the more innovative governance modes are not so new, whilst more recent and celebrated modes, although displaying elements of newness are, perhaps, not that innovative. Hence the suggestion that we are experiencing only 'new-ish governance'. The paper asks whether a limited conception of new governance is inevitable given the legitimacy constraints within which the EU operates, or is their potential for developing a broader conception of governance, which through broader participation and involvement of non-governmental governing capacities, might bolster legitimacy through both better processes and better outcomes.

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The Development of Agencies at EU and National Levels: Conceptual Analysis and Proposals for Reform

Cited by 54 publications

References 4 publications

EU Insights for Political Inclusion in International Institutions

EU Insights for Political Inclusion in International Institutions

A Technology of Expertise: EU Financial Services Agencies

New-ish Governance and the Legitimacy of the EU

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