“Post-parliamentary strategies need, therefore, to be recast as complements, rather than substitute, for parliamentarism at Union level” (Lord and Beetham). Discuss

The rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by the French and Dutch citizens in the referendum of spring 2005 has caused a revival of the EU’s legitimacy issue. It was also evidence for the fact that both the continuous strengthening of the European Parliament’s powers one the one hand and the Commission’s strategy for a “good governance” on the other hand were unable to provide a satisfactory answer to the persistent questioning of the EU’s legitimacy . The concept of legitimacy is founded on three kinds of elements: its legality (the rule of law), its capacity to respect the sovereignty of the people (through elections, representation, and accountability), and the democratic nature of its political outcome in terms of efficiency and rights protection for instance. Furthermore, legitimacy assumes the consent of citizens and recognition by other political organizations .

[...] The fact the modèle parlementaire reste un élément structurant de la réforme des traités”[13] is an evidence for the national leaders to be impregnated with the belief that parliamentarism is best able to democratize and thus legitimize the EU. The cognitive factor puts therefore a first limit the substituting of parliamentarism with post-parliamentary strategies: unlike parliamentarism, principles and modalities of “good governance” are neither universally known nor recognized by political leaders and citizens: they can therefore hardly constitute a basis for legitimizing the EU in the eyes of the wider public. [...]

[...] Participation, Democracy, Legitimacy, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York p Ibid., p Olivier Costa, Le parlementarisme au-delà de l’Etat : le cas de l’Union européenne in Oliver Costa, Eric Kerrouche et Paul Magnette Vers une renouveau du parlementarisme en Europe Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles p Adrienne Héritier, “Elements of democratic legitimation in Europe, an alternative perspective, in Journal of European Public Policy, Vol.6, No p. 274-275. Also Adrienne Héritier: “Composite democracy in Europe: the role of transparency and access to information” in Journal of European Public Policy, Vol No Also Christopher Lord and David Beetham, “Legitimizing the EU: Is there a “Post-parliamentary Basis” for its legitimation? in: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol No p 451- 452. Adrienne Héritier, op. cit p Jean-Paul Jacqué, Droit institutionnel de l’Union européenne (Third edition), Dalloz p 223. European Commission, European Governance. A White [...]

[...] Increasing the entanglement of both parliamentary control and new modes of governance Making parliamentarism and post-parliamentary strategies should be made complementary at all stages of the policy process may be a way to enhance the accountability of all actors and therefore enhance the legitimacy of the Union as a whole. Some recent developments seem to support this view. For instance, regarding the input phase of policy shaping, the EP has become in the last years the most important addressee of citizen-based interest groups. [...]