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In recent years there has been a considerable effort in some
transnational organizations and institutions to confront a crisis
of legitimacy by promising more accountability and openness. This
volume takes as its central focus the role of accountability in
democratic governance, and attempts to position a broad
understanding of the notion of accountability within the overall
context of the evolving political system of governance in Europe
and in particular of the European Union. Bringing together new work
by some of the leading scholars in the field, this volume considers
the relationship between accountability and a wide range of other
themes in European governance such as problems of representation,
transparency, bureaucracy, and transnational relations. The volume
also deals with the role of accountability in multi-level
governance, and its relationship to both direct democracy and civil
society. This book was published as a special issue of West
European Politics.
In recent years there has been a considerable effort in some
transnational organizations and institutions to confront a crisis
of legitimacy by promising more accountability and openness. This
volume takes as its central focus the role of accountability in
democratic governance, and attempts to position a broad
understanding of the notion of accountability within the overall
context of the evolving political system of governance in Europe
and in particular of the European Union. Bringing together new work
by some of the leading scholars in the field, this volume considers
the relationship between accountability and a wide range of other
themes in European governance such as problems of representation,
transparency, bureaucracy, and transnational relations. The volume
also deals with the role of accountability in multi-level
governance, and its relationship to both direct democracy and civil
society. This book was published as a special issue of West
European Politics.
With a foreword by Atzo Nicolai, Minister for European Affairs of
the Kingdom of the Netherlands On 29 October 2004, the Treaty
Establishing a Constitution for Europe was signed by the leaders of
the 25 Member States of the European Union. This event marked the
end of the discussion rounds to amend the treaties on which the
European Union is founded. Yet, the debate on the Constitution was
far from over when on 29 May and 1 June 2005 the French and the
Dutch voters rejected the Treaty. Politicians and lawyers are now
confronted with the question of how to proceed and how to go
forward. In October 2004, the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague,
The Netherlands, organized the 34th Session of its Asser Institute
Colloquium on European Law, which was entitled 'The EU
Constitution: The best way forward?'. During the Conference some 50
experts from the 25 Member States, from candidate, potential
candidate and neighbouring countries, as well as from the US and
Russia focused on key topics like: the process and impact of EU
constitution-making, the democratic life of the EU, improving the
efficiency and quality of legislation in the EU, the expansion of
executive, judicial and legislative powers, and the access to
justice. In anticipation of the developments after the signing of
the Treaty, three eminent speakers - Prof. Joseph Weiler (New York
University), Professor Bruno de Witte (European Institute in
Florence) and Professor Jo Shaw (University of Manchester),
elaborated on many answers in case of a ratification crisis. This
book contains the proceedings of the three-day Conference and
includes, next to the papers of the speakers and commentators,
reports of the discussions on each topic and the texts of two
keynote speeches. A keyword Index and a List of Articles (of the
Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, the Treaty on
European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community)
greatly enhance the accessibility of the rich materials. The book
will be of great help and interest to political leaders, members of
parliament, international lawyers and European citizens in
formulating answers to the questions that have risen after the
rejection of the Treaty by the French and Dutch voters and give
powerful impulses to the continuing debate and efforts to arrive at
a generally accepted Constitution for Europe. Deirdre Curtin is
Professor of European and International Governance at Utrecht
School of Governance, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Alfred E.
Kellermann is Senior Legal and Policy Advisor and Visiting
Professor in the law of the EU at the T.M.C. Asser Institute and
Steven Blockmans is a Senior Researcher in the law of the EU at the
T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.
The executive branch of government in Europe is being gradually
transformed in several significant respects. First, executive power
has been continuously strengthened at the EU level in the form of
the European Commission, EU-level agencies and diplomatic and
military staff in the Union Council secretariat. Second, EU
executive bodies relate directly to (regulatory) authorities at the
national level in charge of applying (and partly preparing) EU laws
and programmes, partly circumventing ministerial departments. Thus,
parts of national administrations become parts of an integrated and
multi-level Union administration as well as parts of national
executives. Such a system with multiple political masters raises
delicate questions about political steering and accountability.
This book focuses on this fascinating development both from a
political science and a legal perspective, encompassing the
consolidation of the supranational executive as well as its
relationships with its 'partners' at the national level. This book
was published as a special issue of West European Politics.
The Real World of EU Accountability reports the findings of a major
empirical study into patterns and practices of accountability in
European governance. The product of a 4-year, path-breaking
project, this book assesses to what extent and how the people that
populate the key arenas where European public policy is made or
implemented are held accountable. Using a systematic analytical
framework, it examines not just the formal accountability
arrangements but also documents and compares how these operate in
practice. In doing so, it provides a unique, empirically grounded
contribution to the pivotal but often remarkably fact-free debate
about democracy and accountability in European governance.
With four empirical chapters covering the Commission and its
agencies, the European Council, and Comitology committees, it shows
that a web of formal accountability arrangements has been woven
around most of them, but that the extent to which the relevant
accountability forums actually use the oversight possibilities
offered to them varies markedly: some forums lack the institutional
resources, others the willingness. But in those cases where both
are on the increase, as in the European Parliament's efforts vis a
vis the European Commission, fundamentally healthy accountability
relationships are developing. Although ex-post accountability is
only part of the larger equation determining the democratic quality
of European governance, this study suggests that at least in this
area, the EU is slowly but surely reducing its 'democratic
deficit'.
The picture of Brussels-based bureaucrats exercising wide-ranging,
arbitrary executive powers with no accountability is one of the
favorite images conjured by Eurosceptics across the political
spectrum. What truth is there in the image? This book aims to bring
the EU's executive powers out of the shadows by mapping the
evolution and current form of the EU's various executive actors,
their powers, and the mechanisms for holding them accountable. In
doing so it provides a rich understanding of the way in which the
EU's institutional and legal framework fits within national
constitutional presumptions about how power should be controlled
and accountability achieved.
Covering both the political executive and the administrative
executive at the EU institutional level, the book analyzes their
relationship with national executive power, and traces the
historical evolution of executive order in Europe from the Peace of
Westphalia through classic inter-governmental organizations to the
allegedly unique EU framework. The book's analysis covers both the
formal legal structure of the Union and the evolution of the EU's
living institutions in practice. The picture presented is of a
fragmented, cluttered and complex European executive space,
resistant to radical constitutional reform and in need of a more
nuanced understanding of the different forms of executive power
required by different political aims and modes of decision-making.
The picture of Brussels-based bureaucrats exercising wide-ranging,
arbitrary executive powers with no accountability is one of the
favorite images conjured by Eurosceptics across the political
spectrum. What truth is there in the image? This book aims to bring
the EU's executive powers out of the shadows by mapping the
evolution and current form of the EU's various executive actors,
their powers, and the mechanisms for holding them accountable. In
doing so it provides a rich understanding of the way in which the
EU's institutional and legal framework fits within national
constitutional presumptions about how power should be controlled
and accountability achieved.
Covering both the political executive and the administrative
executive at the EU institutional level, the book analyzes their
relationship with national executive power, and traces the
historical evolution of executive order in Europe from the Peace of
Westphalia through classic inter-governmental organizations to the
allegedly unique EU framework. The book's analysis covers both the
formal legal structure of the Union and the evolution of the EU's
living institutions in practice. The picture presented is of a
fragmented, cluttered and complex European executive space,
resistant to radical constitutional reform and in need of a more
nuanced understanding of the different forms of executive power
required by different political aims and modes of decision-making.
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