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

politics and administration
3 politics and administration
3.1 introduction
The eu’s multi-layered political system is explicitly decentralised in its
configuration. National politics and administration consequently play a
crucial role in the legitimisation of eu policy at the national level. In a
perfect democratic process, politicians and administrators would ideally
represent and be responsible for eu policy input for the citizens of their
respective nations. Politicians and administrators are, after all, part of the
eu policy decision making process, often because they have a formal role
to play within it (e.g., cabinet members), or more informal and indirect
roles. They also have the important task of implementation of eu policy in
the Netherlands.
In the previous chapter, however, it was observed that the changes that
have occurred in the relations of citizens to the European integration
process have not been translated, or at least not adequately, into supplementary
means of legitimisation. Politicians and administrators have thus
far received virtually no incentives to contribute to the legitimisation of eu
policy in the Netherlands or to break down the barriers to that legitimisation,
and this has led to the national political system’s structural neglect of
the European dimension.
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This leads to the worrying situation of changes at the political and administrative
levels that are difficult to enforce, whereas this is precisely where
the key to the achievement of the desired strengthening of policy legitimisation
lies. To this can be added the urgency of the questions that will face
politicians and administrators in the short term, such as ratification of the
new Treaty and Turkey’s candidacy. In the longer term, other fundamental
questions also deserve persuasive answers: How can accountability for
eu policy in the Netherlands be strengthened? What does the Netherlands
wish to achieve in the eu, and how? What actually binds us to ‘Europe’?
Politicians and administrators will also have to take responsibility for
defending their proposals in Parliament, among their political supporters
and in the media.
The central question in this chapter is what new ways are open to national
politicians and officials that could contribute to the legitimisation of eu
policy in the Netherlands. When thinking of solutions within the context
of the Dutch political system there is the risk that these do not go beyond
formal/institutional solutions, which have little or no direct relevance for