Democratic control and legitimacy in the evolving EU economic governance framework

Democratic control and legitimacy in the evolving EU economic governance frameworkThe European Semester (ES) is a centrepiece of the EU’s evolving economic governance architecture and its democratic legitimacy and accountability has been contested in pre- and post-pandemic times. This paper introduces two perspectives – a democratic and a technocratic perspective – to evaluate the accountability of the ES, based on a survey of existing literature. Whereas there is broad agreement that the ES has deficiencies according to both perspectives, procedural reforms have only a limited potential to narrow accountability gaps. A focus on proceduralism overlooks the more fundamental democratic deficits that plague the EU’s economic governance system. This document was provided by the Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit at the request of the ECON Committee.