European Governance and Civic Participation: Can the European Union be politicised?
Participation is one of the keywords of the white paper on European governance. It is defined as one of the five major principles of “good governance”, and appears in the arguments of the white paper and its preparatory documents as one of its most important principles. Participation is supposed to enhance both the efficiency and the legitimacy of European governance: it is said to respond to “the expectations of the Union’s citizens” (p. 35), it should “connect Europe with its citizens” (p. 3), help follow “a less top-down approach” (p. 4) and make the policy-making “more inclusive and accountable” (p. 8). All this, in turn, should enhance “the quality, relevance and effectiveness of EU policies”, “create more confidence in the end-result and in the institutions which deliver policies” (p. 10) and generate “a sense of belonging to Europe” (p. 11). In other words, efficiency and legitimacy do not simply derive from the output dispensed by the system, they also depend “on involvement an
