Democratic legitimacy in the post-crisis EMU

Ben Crum; Stefano Merlo

doi:10.1080/07036337.2020.1730347

Democratic legitimacy in the post-crisis EMU

Ben Crum^*
, Stefano Merlo

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

This paper examines the democratic legitimacy of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) since the international financial crisis hit the euro area. From its inception, EMU has been marked by an asymmetry as its monetary pillar relied on output legitimacy while its economic pillar relied essentially on input legitimacy at the national level. The crisis severely challenged EMU’s output legitimacy, which led to the establishment of new European-level institutions. We analyse the European Stability Mechanism, the European Semester, and Banking Union to take stock of their powers and the ways that these are balanced by mechanisms of legitimacy. Our main finding is that the intergovernmental and output-oriented approach that originally informed the legitimacy of EMU has remained prevalent after the crisis. However, as the three domains–in varying degrees–address questions that are essentially political, we argue that the channels for input legitimacy at the European level remain deficient.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	399-413
Number of pages	15
Journal	Journal of European Integration
Volume	42
Issue number	3
Early online date	29 Mar 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2020.1730347
Publication status	Published - 2 Apr 2020

Funding

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the EMU at Twenty workshop at Leiden University (16-17 November 2018) https://www.uvic.ca/interdisciplinary/europe/eu-grants/network/eurosem-18-21/the-emu-at-twenty/index.php . This workshop was supported by the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University and launched the Jean Monnet Network entitled “The Politics of the European Semester: EU Coordination and Domestic Political Institutions (EUROSEM)”, Agreement number: 600110-EPP-1-2018-1-CA-EPPJMO-NETWORK (Grant agreement nr 2018-1359), cofounded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The paper has benefitted from the enthusiastic feedback of the workshop participants and, in particular, from comments from our discussant Reinout van der Veer, the editors of this volume, Amy Verdun and David Howarth, and two anonymous reviewers. Ben Crum’s research for this paper has been carried out as part of the RECONNECT project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 770142. This work was supported by the H2020 Societal Challenges [Grant Agreement no. 770142]. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the EMU at Twenty workshop at Leiden University (16-17 November 2018) https://www.uvic.ca/interdisciplinary/europe/eu-grants/network/eurosem-18-21/the-emu-at-twenty/index.php. This workshop was supported by the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University and launched the Jean Monnet Network entitled “The Politics of the European Semester: EU Coordination and Domestic Political Institutions (EUROSEM)”, Agreement number: 600110-EPP-1-2018-1-CA-EPPJMO-NETWORK (Grant agreement nr 2018-1359), cofounded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The paper has benefitted from the enthusiastic feedback of the workshop participants and, in particular, from comments from our discussant Reinout van der Veer, the editors of this volume, Amy Verdun and David Howarth, and two anonymous reviewers. Ben Crum’s research for this paper has been carried out as part of the RECONNECT project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 770142.

Funders	Funder number
Institute of Political Science at Leiden University	2018-1359, 600110-EPP-1-2018-1-CA-EPPJMO-NETWORK
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
H2020 Societal Challenges	770142
Eastern Michigan University
European Commission
Universiteit Leiden
Erasmus+

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Banking Union
Economic and Monetary Union
European Semester
European Stability Mechanism
legitimacy

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10.1080/07036337.2020.1730347

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Cite this

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title = "Democratic legitimacy in the post-crisis EMU",

abstract = "This paper examines the democratic legitimacy of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) since the international financial crisis hit the euro area. From its inception, EMU has been marked by an asymmetry as its monetary pillar relied on output legitimacy while its economic pillar relied essentially on input legitimacy at the national level. The crisis severely challenged EMU{\textquoteright}s output legitimacy, which led to the establishment of new European-level institutions. We analyse the European Stability Mechanism, the European Semester, and Banking Union to take stock of their powers and the ways that these are balanced by mechanisms of legitimacy. Our main finding is that the intergovernmental and output-oriented approach that originally informed the legitimacy of EMU has remained prevalent after the crisis. However, as the three domains–in varying degrees–address questions that are essentially political, we argue that the channels for input legitimacy at the European level remain deficient.",

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Democratic legitimacy in the post-crisis EMU

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

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Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and Rule of Law — RECONNECT

Cite this

Democratic legitimacy in the post-crisis EMU

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and Rule of Law — RECONNECT

Cite this