The Illusion Of Accountability In The European Union

This book examines accountability in the EU from different perspectives and considers whether EU citizens have real opportunities for holding decision-makers accountable. This book critically analyses five arguments which claim there are sufficient means for holding decision-makers to account in the Union. The main conclusion is that the current institutional set-up and practice of decision-making in the EU is one that merely creates an illusion of accountability. Using a strict framework focusing on the difference between formal mechanisms and actual opportunities for accountability, this highly coherent volume will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, especially those interested in the democratic foundations of the European political system. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The Real World of EU Accountability examines how the European Union operates in practice and how and where its various institutions are held to account for the decisions they take and the power they wield.

This book offers comprehensive coverage of various aspects of financial accountability around the EU budget – how it is spent via policies, how institutions engage in checking policy performance (what taxpayers’ money actually delivers), and therein, the issues of monitoring, controlling, auditing, scrutinising and communicating budgetary expenditure. Presenting conceptual and theoretical approaches including financial accountability, learning, multi-level governance, implementation and throughput legitimacy, it looks at EU institutions (European Parliament, European Court of Auditors, European Ombudsman, European Public Prosecutor’s Office) and national bodies (supreme audit institutions at the national level), examining their contact with the EU budget. It details the historical development of accountability mechanisms (the ‘statement of assurance’, financial corrections, and parliamentary oversight by the Budgetary Control Committee (CONT)), and examines policy areas such as those of agriculture, social policy and cohesion (including Structural Funds and the Common Agricultural Policy), exploring the challenges of financial accountability in practice. Given the recent introduction of non-budgetary financial instruments and tools only partly financed by the EU budget, it sheds light on new burgeoning areas such as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) and the challenges they bring for ensuring the accountability of public money. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of audit and evaluation, budgetary spending and financial control and, more broadly, public administration, public policy and EU institutions and politics.

A key component of democratic accountability is that citizens understand 'who is to blame'. Nonetheless, little is known about how citizens attribute responsibility in the European Union or how those perceptions of responsibility matter. This book presents the first comprehensive account of how citizens assign blame to the EU, how politicians and the media attempt to shift blame and finally, how it matters for electoral democracy. Based on rich and unique data sources, Blaming Europe? sheds light on all three aspects of responsibility in the EU. First, it shows that while institutional differences between countries shape citizen judgements of EU responsibility, those judgements are also highly determined by pre-existing attitudes towards the EU. Second, it demonstrates that neither politicians nor the media assign much blame to the EU. Third, it establishes that regardless of whether voters are capable of accurately assigning responsibility, they are not able to hold their EU representatives to account via the ballot box in European elections due to the lack of an identifiable 'European government' to reward or punish. As a consequence, when citizens hold the EU responsible for poor performance, but are unable to sanction an EU incumbent, they lose trust in the EU as a whole instead. In conclusion, it argues that this 'accountability deficit' has significant implications for the future of the European Union.

It was a great pleasure to find such a rich analysis of the role of national parliaments in the EU. What I particularly like - and what proves to be particularly fruitful is the combination of perspectives; the EU law and national constitutional perspective including a comparative dimension, the perspective that explains the role of national parliaments in the EU from past to present (and even near future) and last but not least, the perspective of the interaction between the legal frameworks and the political reality. There is every reason to congratulate Adam Cygan wholeheartedly on this book. Ton Van Den Brink, Europa Instituut Utrecht, The Netherlands One of the most outstanding specialists on the role of national parliaments in the EU has produced another impressive book about this dynamic topic. It provides an illuminating overview of current practices, it sharply analyses the legal status quo, and it brings theoretical depth to the topic in multiple perspectives. Olaf Tans, Amsterdam University College, The Netherlands This accessible and detailed book takes an interdisciplinary approach in exploring the position of national parliaments in the EU polity and in particular their position within the EU governance framework. Adam Cygan analyses the impact of subsidiarity monitoring upon national parliaments and to what extent this provides new opportunities for national parliaments to be engaged in, and exert influence over, the EU legislative process. While the post-Lisbon position of national parliaments may have improved, this book questions whether national parliaments can really be considered as central actors in EU affairs. The author also queries whether subsidiarity monitoring has the capacity to create a collective bloc of horizontal actors which exert effective accountability over the EU legislative process. Accountability, Parliamentarism and Transparency in the EU will strongly appeal to academics, parliamentarians/parliamentary officials working in EU affairs, as well as EU civil servants.

The picture of Brussels-based bureaucrats exercising arbitrary executive powers is one of the favourite images conjured by Eurosceptics across the political spectrum. This book offers a richer understanding of the nature of the EU's powers, how they relate to national governments, and how they are controlled.

An examination of executive actors' accountability for EU economic decisions in the aftermath of the euro crisis.

The European Union's growing accountability deficit threatens to undermine its legitimacy. This was acknowledged by the Member States in Nice in February 2001. Recognising the need to improve 'the democratic legitimacy and transparency of the Union and its institutions', they agreed to launcha debate on the Union's future. At Laeken in December 2001, the Member States decided that the debate should be carried forward in a Convention comprising the main parties involved. The debate will start to crystallise in 2004, when negotiations on a new set of Treaty changes will begin. The outcome of those negotiations will profoundly affect the constitutional and political health of the Union as it confronts enlargement to the east and south and the challenges of the 21st century. However, the Union's accountability and legitimacy deficit is so deep-seated that it is unlikely tobe eradicated completely by the changes agreed. The issue will therefore remain high on the political agenda for the foreseeable future. The contributors to this interdisciplinary collection of essays consider various aspects of accountability and legitimacy in the European Union. How open shouldthe Union's decision-making be? What is the right balance between accountability and efficiency? Does the Union now need a formal constitution? How can respect for democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law in the Union best be ensured? These are just some of the questions explored in thisbook. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the future of Europe, from students and academics to policy-makers, and journalists