The European Commission

This chapter examines the development of the European Union’s (EU) conception of the concept of ‘governance’ and explains how the European Commission has sought to define and clarify EU governance itself. The chapter illustrates how references to ‘good governance’ are mainstreamed throughout EU policy-making, describing how and why the EU’s view of the desirability of its own form of governance is deemed exportable. Over 50 years’ consolidation of its internal and external policy instruments, political, economic, commercial, financial and, above all, normative, have enabled the EU to defend and promote European interests and values—both within the European space and in relations with its partners and rivals abroad. The existence of the EU has clearly contributed to the reshaping of political and economic relations within Europe. By challenging the centrality of the nation-state, both within Europe and in world politics, the EU has also played a major part in establishing and consolidating an original form of supranational governance in Europe and a role model for other regions of the world. Paradoxically, it has done this despite shifting public support. The permissive consensus, ² which accompanied and facilitated European integration until the 1970s, has evolved into a large measure of public disaffection with ‘Europe’. There is even divided support among European elites—once the backbone of an avowedly federalist ambition. ‘Good governance’ in Europe and elsewhere is none the less a major political priority for the EU, though it is increasingly clear that Europe needs to legitimate the practice of EU governance, which few people understand and thus few people support. Legitimacy requires understanding and support, as many observers agree—not least former European Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who has argued that:

L’Union est très en avance par rapport aux autres tentatives d’intégration régionale, comme l’Alena, le Mercosur ou l’Asean. Elle a su faire le saut technologique du pouvoir supranationale, mais il n’y a toujours pas de légitimité supranationale. Cela fait plusieurs décennies que l’on 60frotte le silex institutionnel et que le feu démocratique ne prend pas. C’est un problème pour l’Europe mais aussi pour les autres continents qui, eux aussi, vont buter sur ce plafond démocratique si l’Europe politique échoue. Mais je ne pense pas que cela soit irrémédiable. Il nous faut mieux comprendre les enjeux d’identité, de sentiment d’appartenance, de culture et de civilisation qui ont été négligés jusqu’à présent. Trop de juristes et d’économistes, pas assez d’anthropologues ou de sociologues.