Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

introduction
comparing it with the emergence of modern nation-states – as a fully
fledged European political system in formation, one usually applies a
different perspective to the legitimacy of European decisions than a person
who perceives the eu merely as an international organisation not unlike
many others. Therefore, the wrr needs to briefly present its own views
on the eu (wrr 2001; wrr 2003). The wrr regards the eu as a multilevel
political system that operates at European, national, regional and local
levels. The system is characterised by a combination of more or less unique
(hybrid) forms of hierarchical, community and intergovernmental governance
structures in addition to the governance based on horizontal, generally
flexible networks of changing coalitions of stakeholders (e.g. between
national actors and ngos and/or between actors at supra-, sub- and
national levels) (Marks, Hooghe and Blank 1996; Tatenhove 2003).
Formal legitimisation of this system occurs via both direct and indirect
channels. The direct channel connects members of the public as European
citizens to the eu and its supranational institutions, through direct elections
of the European Parliament. The indirect channel connects members
of the public to the eu as national citizens, through the mediation of
elected national politicians and government officials. Politicians and
government officials thus fulfil a pivotal or linking function between citizens
and eu policy (wrr 2003; Raad van State 2005) and shape the democratic
mandate for eu policy in the Netherlands.
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National politicians and government officials have increasingly begun
fulfilling their linking function in the area of civil society and the news
media actors. As per request, this report will pay explicit attention to the
way in which actors from Dutch civil society and the news media (can)
function as activating intermediates or links between Dutch citizens and
Europe. This is not to say that the direct legitimisation of eu policy, independently
of these national actors, is not just as important. Commercial
media concerns for example, have become increasingly competitive on
both the international and European playing fields. However, like the
government, the wrr believes that important changes at both the European
and national levels in recent decades demand a reconsideration of this
indirect, national legitimisation process.
Politicisation
The government has also requested that we look into the question of
whether ‘making European issues more political’ (i.e., politicising those
issues) would contribute to bridging the perceived gap. In this report, the
concept of ‘politicisation’ is used to describe the process in which the eu
decision-making process becomes more controversial, and partly as a result