Thread by @MaricutAkbik

1/11 In a new article with Mark Dawson published in @RegGov_journal, we argue that the #EU's current approach to accountability reflects a regulatory bias towards the process of decision-making and interest mediation. 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

2/11 But the #EU is more than a regulatory state. We introduce the concept of the ‘para-regulatory state’ to describe increasing EU regulation in areas of core state powers that are both redistributive and politicized, e.g. fiscal policy, border control, police, public admin etc.

3/11 In these areas, we contend that the #EU requires a substantive notion of accountability, focused on the merit of policy decisions and their likely impact.

4/11 It is not enough to check the correctness of decision-making procedures and the extent to which they include ‘affected parties’ in the process.

5/11 To hold #EU executive actors accountable in a substantive way, accountability forums need to openly address questions of redistribution and political disagreement.

6/11 We illustrate our argument with two cases selected from the #emu, discussing parliamentary accountability in the #EuropeanSemester and judicial accountability of the @ecb

7/11 After showing the emphasis of procedures over substance in both cases, we make several recommendations on how to improve substantive accountability in the #emu.

8/11 For example, we propose that the @europarl could exercise parliamentary scrutiny in #EMU by drawing on a ‘Redistribution Scoreboard’ that would show the impact of #EuropeanSemester decisions across Member States. @EP_Economics

9/11 On the judicial side, a solution would be for the @EUCourtPress to demand more robust substantive justifications from the @ecb regarding the distributive implications of its decisions or to defend those decisions against alternatives.

10/11 We conclude that Majone was ultimately right: while accountability in the regulatory state might be legitimately grounded in procedural devices, accountability in the ‘para-regulatory state’ inevitably concerns the substance of policy.

11/11 We are grateful to Markus Jachtenfuchs, @ana_bobic and @BJMbraun for comments on earlier versions of the paper. The article is #OpenAccess and supported by @ERC_Research funding at the @thehertieschool @DelorsBerlin