European Union Regional Policy meets the challenge of enlargement: inertia or reform?

Paulo Vila Maior

No 358, Working Papers from Universidade Fernando Pessoa

Abstract: The paper focus on the constitutional implications derived from the specific nature of the European Central Bank (ECB) for the would-be polity formation in the European Union (EU). The emphasis is placed on the alleged absence of democratic legitimacy and the intertwined weak pattern of accountability the ECB shows. My argument tries to challenge the reasoning supporting this conventional criticism. Maybe the ECB is not so undemocratic; maybe the institutional arrangements for its accountability are not to be so harshly criticised. The denial of the conventional criticism relies on the specific nature of the supranational polity that is emerging, for which Economic and Monetary Union (and the ECB by large) plays a prominent role. The reasons for this alternative interpretation are twofold. One depicts the specific nature of the European integration process, and the inherent changes to the traditional vision of sovereignty, democracy and accountability. The other challenges the way member states themselves are currently unable to satisfy the requirements of democratic legitimacy and accountability for reasons related to a decay of parliamentary democracies and for the diminished ability nation states have to be the central agents of decision-making in a world of increased economic interdependence. Therefore the ECB may be in possession of sufficient democratic legitimacy (and thus the claims of limited accountability fall apart) if one assess its performance as being the guarantee for price stability as the main political-economic outcome the supranational bank can afford to the European citizens.

Keywords: European integration theories; Economic and Monetary Union; Liberal intergovernmentalism; Neofunctionalism; Supranational governance; Institutionalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 12 pages
Date: 2008-03-14
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