Table Of ContentDemocratic Decision-m aking in the EU
Technocracy in disguise?
This book examines the democratic legitimacy of the European Union (EU) and
evaluates the democratic credentials of the EU’s main decision- making pro-
cedure. It finds that though there is potential for democratic decision- making in
the EU, the actual process is dominated by technocrats and secret meetings.
The book assesses and discusses the conditions for democratic input in
decision- making with five empirical chapters each addressing the ordinary legis-
lative procedure from different dimensions: democratic deliberative forums,
inclusion, openness, power neutralising mechanisms and decision- making capa-
city. The analytical framework provides for an in- depth assessment of the ordi-
nary legislative procedure’s potential democratic qualities and examines whether
it fulfils democratic criteria, how the procedure works in practice and whether it
has the necessary democratic clout. The author provides both a theoretical dis-
cussion and an empirical assessment of what role the principle of democracy
could play in the EU.
Filling a gap in EU legislative studies and contributing to the debate on the
European democratic deficit, Democratic Decision-m aking in the EU: Technocracy
in disguise? will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union pol-
itics, legislative studies and deliberative democracy.
Anne Elizabeth Stie is postdoctoral fellow at University of Agder, Norway. She
has previously worked at and is still affilliated with ARENA, Centre for Euro-
pean Studies, University of Oslo, Norway.
Routledge studies on democratising Europe
Edited by Erik Oddvar Eriksen and John Erik Fossum
ARENA, University of Oslo
Routledge Studies on Democratising Europe focuses on the prospects for a
citizens’ Europe by analysing the kind of order that is emerging in Europe. The
books in the series take stock of the EU as an entity that has progressed beyond
intergovernmentalism and consider how to account for this process and what
makes it democratic. The emphasis is on citizenship, constitution-m aking, public
sphere, enlargement, common foreign and security policy, and Europe society.
1 Developing a Constitution for Europe
Edited by Erik Oddvar Eriksen, John Erik Fossum and Agustín José
Menéndez
2 Making the European Polity: Reflexive Integration in the EU
Edited by Erik Oddvar Eriksen
3 Questioning EU Enlargement
Edited by Helen Sjursen
4 The European Union and the Public Sphere: A Communicative Space
in the Making?
Edited by John Erik Fossum and Philip Schlesinger
5 Law, Democracy and Solidarity in a Post-n ational Union
The unsettled political order of Europe
Edited by Erik Oddvar Eriksen, Christian Joerges and Florian Rödl
6 The New Politics of European Civil Society
Edited by Ulrike Liebert and Hans-J örg Trenz
7 Rethinking Democracy and the European Union
Edited by Erik Oddvar Eriksen and John Erik Fossum
8 The Politicization of Europe
Contesting the constitution in the mass media
Paul Statham and Hans-Jörg Trenz
9 Democratic Decision-m aking in the EU
Technocracy in disguise?
Anne Elizabeth Stie
Democratic Decision-m aking in
the EU
Technocracy in disguise?
Anne Elizabeth Stie
First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Anne Elizabeth Stie
The right of Anne Elizabeth Stie to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
Stie, Anne Elizabeth.
Democratic decision-making in the EU : technocracy in disguise? / Anne
Elizabeth Stie.
p. cm. – (Routledge studies on democratising Europe ; 9)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. European Union–Decision making. 2. European Union
countries–Politics and government. 3. Technocracy. I. Title.
JN30.S774 2012
341.242'2–dc23 2012025902
ISBN: 978-0-415-52575-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07642-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
Preface x
List of abbreviations xii
1 Introduction 1
The OLP and the European democratic deficit 2
Aim of the book 3
Democracy as idea and as practice 4
Deliberative democracy 8
The EU and deliberative theory 10
How to approach deliberative democracy empirically? 12
Outline of the book 16
PART I
Theory, approximation and background 19
2 What is democratic legitimacy? 21
Introduction 21
Democratic legitimacy from a deliberative perspective 22
Is deliberative democracy realistic? 26
Deliberative legitimacy versus democratic legitimacy 30
Conclusion 34
3 Approximating ideal principles to non-i deal conditions: the
evaluative framework 36
Introduction 36
How to approach evaluation of decision-m aking procedures 37
Criteria of democratic legitimacy 38
Methodological considerations 47
Conclusion 56
viii Contents
4 Background: from co-d ecision to the ordinary legislative
procedure 57
Introduction 57
How the ordinary legislative procedure works 57
The development of the OLP 63
The OLP in numbers: efficiency and effectiveness 69
Conclusion 71
PART II
Evaluation 73
5 A forum for the public? Are there democratic deliberative
meeting places? 75
Introduction 75
EP committees 77
EP plenary sessions 85
EP delegation meetings 89
The Council of Ministers 92
The Conciliation Committee 99
Conclusion 102
6 Inclusion of affected and competent parties 105
Introduction 105
Elected decision-m akers with veto power 105
Hierarchy of actors 106
Conclusion 119
7 Openness and transparency 122
Introduction 122
Public access to policy proposals 123
Access to documents 123
Openness of debates 126
Intelligibility of voting 130
The trialogue versus the Conciliation Committee 134
Conclusion 136
8 Neutralisation of asymmetrical power relations 138
Introduction 138
Intelligibility of procedure 138
Separation of powers 141
Judicial review 145
Contents ix
The European Ombudsman: ‘between parliamentary control and
the rule of law’ 147
Conclusion 152
9 Decision- making capacity 154
Introduction 154
Is the Council a competing decision-m aking arrangement? 155
Do the trialogues represent a competing decision-m aking
arrangement? 156
Conclusion 165
10 OLP: democratic decision-m aking or technocracy in
disguise? 167
Introduction 167
Democratic qualities – but not fully materialised . . . 168
Democratic deficits 173
OLP acts as working agreements? 184
The evaluative framework and the way ahead 186
Notes 190
Bibliography 212
Official EU documents 227
Other documents 234
Index 236
Preface
The former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, sup-
posedly once said that ‘Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.’ This
quote may sum up the essence of the normative argument defended in this book.
It goes to the heart of what democracy should be about, namely a publicly, open
and justificatory practice. This book defends not only a deliberative, but also a
procedural approach to democratic legitimacy. The main argument is therefore
that a legitimate policy outcome is only partly justified by the quality of its
content, it is just as important how it was reached. For decision-m aking pro-
cesses to be democratically legitimate there should, therefore, be a daily practice
of reason- giving and public justification. For this to happen, the institutional and
procedural arrangements must be conducive to democratic deliberation. A major
task of this book is to specify how we can approximate deliberative principles
into mechanisms that most likely will maximise the conditions for this happen.
Many will, nonetheless, call deliberative democracy utopian or unrealistic. My
aim is to show that this is not the case and simultaneously admit that deliberative
democracy is hard to achieve and perhaps more fragile than many other models
of democracy. However, the difficulties we encounter in bringing it about, does
not give us reasons to render the enterprise futile. It rather urges us to investigate
the conditions under which deliberative democracy is possible and thoroughly
discuss the potential normative trade-o ffs that can and cannot be made. My hope
is that this book can be a small step in this direction.
This book is first and foremost the result of many and highly formative years
at ARENA – Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo. As a
research assistant, master student, PhD fellow and later researcher, ARENA has
offered direct access to a first class international research environment. In this
regard, I have been fortunate to work with Erik Oddvar Eriksen and John Erik
Fossum. I wish to thank them both for comments, advice and support. I also
wish to express my gratitude to good colleagues and friends at ARENA for col-
lectively creating and maintaining a stimulating and challenging work place. The
book has benefited greatly from fruitful discussions, seminars, workshops and
conferences in various formats, especially through the collaborative, EU- funded
research projects CIDEL and RECON. I am grateful to the many people
who have read and commented on the manuscript, in particular, Marianne
