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

ediscovering europe in the netherlands
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Apprehension regarding democratic legitimisation
The initial fears that there would be a ‘confusion’ between national and
European democratic channels illustrate a more general inability by the
Netherlands to deal with both existing and newer mechanisms and
concepts for democratic legitimisation. Successive governments have – in
line with the traditional preference for the Community method – from the
beginning recommended that greater powers be given to the European
Parliament and the European Commission as a response to a lack of democratic
mechanisms in the eu. However, there is plenty of evidence that
shows that this route currently offers only limited possibilities for more
input legitimacy (Van Middelaar 2004; Hix 2005; Schmidt 2006). The
European Parliament elections, after all, are not concerned with genuine
European issues, because political parties and the news media use them as
a yardstick for national rather than European power relations. The majority
of European citizens accordingly have no connection whatsoever with
their national meps, whereas they still often feel connected to their
national mps. The multifaceted European Parliament debates are also difficult
to follow and highly technocratic. The result is that European elections
generate virtually no European political debate that would enable voters to
form an opinion and develop political preferences. The fact that increases
in the European Parliaments powers offers only a limited counterweight to
the dwindling controlling powers of national parliaments is at least as
important a factor, because the Council is more influential in the legislative
process and budgetary procedures than the European Parliament (Hix
2005: 177-180).
The traditional Dutch focus on the Community method and its aversion to
‘intergovernmentalism’ also leads to a neglect of opportunities to improve
representation, accountability and identification via government and
Parliamentary channels. Both form crucial links between the citizens, on
the one hand, and ministers and the Prime Minister in the Council of
Ministers and the European Council, respectively, on the other. Moreover,
it is precisely in many of the more recent (politically sensitive) policy
domains in which the input legitimacy of eu decisions is open to discussion
and the commitment to consensus is essential, that an embedding of
national institutions is taking place within European frameworks. As the
wrr noted in its report on Europe in 2003:
… with the increasing variation of governance methods, the formal and informal interdependence
of national and European institutions has also been systematically [increasing]
in recent years’. … National governments have acquired an important pivotal function in
more and more phases of the policy implementation process, forcing them to bridge the