Panara, C and Varney, M (2017) Multi-Level Governance in the EU and EU Democracy: Democratic Legitimacy, Democratic Accountability and Transparency of the European Offices of the English Local Authorities in Brussels. Regional and Federal Studies, 27 (2). pp. 153-170. ISSN 1359-7566

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Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the role and functions of the representative offices of English local authorities in Brussels by considering the democratic legitimacy (i.e. linkage to elected councillors or mayors), accountability and transparency of the office’s activities. Representatives of each of the offices studied were interviewed by the authors and an examination of documents relating to the governance of the offices was also undertaken, resulting in a substantial amount of new data on the activities of the offices. The study demonstrates that the offices differ in their governance arrangements and funding, which has a direct impact on the approach to democratic legitimacy and accountability, noting that those offices which rely most heavily on direct funding from a single authority or a combined authority have the closest links to the authorities concerned. The transparency of the offices varies considerably, with clear distinctions between offices that are creatures of contract (i.e. where authorities have contracted out the activities of the office) or where offices are an emanation of the authority concerned and are thus in the public sector. The pattern here is less dependent on the pattern of funding of the office and depends more on the availability of resources and the approach adopted by the office itself. The article presents a substantial amount of new data on the activities of the offices and their approaches to legitimacy, accountability and transparency. It also seeks to demonstrate that the offices are increasingly important in tying together the territorial and functional interests in a locality in order to represent them at the European level.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Regional and Federal Studies on 21st April 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13597566.2017.1308926
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1606 Political Science, 1605 Policy And Administration
Subjects:	J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions:	Law
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Date Deposited:	31 Mar 2017 10:27
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 11:45
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/13597566.2017.1308926
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6191

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