Parliaments, Estates & Representation

As the European Parliament (EP) has progressively gained powers in the last decades, the life of the institution has been marked by growing complexity and the quest for increased legitimacy. The management of information has been crucial to both, flowing in a double direction: committee specialization and ever-growing public outreach. These underpin the EP’s efforts to make up for the democratic deficit in the architecture of the European Union (EU).

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On the one hand, information as input derives legitimacy from efficiency. Committees have been central to handling information in order to achieve greater efficiency in legislative work. In strengthening their position and through their claims for greater transparency in the whole EU architecture, EP Committees have also strengthened the role of the EP in European governance. On the other hand, information as output derives legitimacy from public ownership. Direct elections and ever-growing powers have not automatically increased the legitimacy of the EP. Reaching out directly to citizens, both to inform and to be informed, has become an important battleground for legitimacy in supranational Europe.