Governance, accountability, and political legitimacy: who participates in the European parliament’s committee hearings (ECON 2004–2014)

Abstract

The Europeanization of economic and financial governance poses a legitimacy question for the European Parliament (EP). Drawing from theories on resource-exchange and institutional legitimacy, we argue that committee hearings allow the EP to demonstrate its relevance as a political authority. We test our argument, focusing on the Committee on Economic & Monetary Affairs (ECON). Through an unprecedented systematic analysis of its hearings; we provide a fine-grained identification of all participants across two legislatures (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014). We observe a considerable shift in the use of hearings from the 6th to the 7th legislature, reflected in the increase of events and participants. While business interests retain a strong presence, the participants' composition changes substantially. Research organizations and EU-level executive bodies saw the largest increase. Conversely, national level executive bodies saw a decrease in participation. Theoretically, we examine an understudied area of European governance, while contributing to discussions on interest group access, agency accountability, and deliberative procedures.

Introducing the PFxEU tracker dataset: Tracking political financing in the European Union

“…Business has a strong presence in Brussels and has the resources to mobilize (Coen et al, 2021; Coen and Katsaitis, 2022; Katsaitis, 2015). However, it has not decided yet to use financial resources to directly support parties in Brussels.…”