Antoine Vauchez in conversation with Ulrike Guérot
The democratic legitimacy of the European Union is increasingly being called into question by the public. The multitude of current crisis phenomena, such as the financial and Greek crises, as well as central political control tasks are being negotiated by expert elites of the seemingly independent, impartial EU institutions such as the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Their legal and regulatory measures reflect their ability to exert political influence. The institutional architecture is based on the idea of objective experts, whose particular form of legitimacy is based on independence from party and socio-political issues and national egoisms.
According to Vauchez, however, the reality is different: In reality, the supposedly neutral institutions determine Europe's political destiny. Only when the key political role of these expertocratic institutions is understood and changed can democratisation efforts and crisis management be successful. A fiery plea for the reform and democratisation of the EU institutions.
Moderation Ulrike Guérot, Professor at Danube University Krems and Head of the Department of European Politics and Democracy Research there, founder of the European Democracy Lab in Berlin
Antoine Vauchez is a French political scientist. He is the director of the French national research organisation CNRS and a researcher at the Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique (CESSP) at the University of Paris-Sorbonne.
The event will be held in English.