Political Representation in the European Union Still democratic in times of crisis? Routledge Advances in European Politics Series

In recent years the financial and economic crisis of 2008?9 has progressed into an equally important political and democratic crisis of the EU. These troubled times have set the framework to re-assess a number of important questions in regard to representative democracy in the EU, such as the normative foundation of political representation, the institutional relationship between representatives and represented, the link between democracy and representation and new arenas and actors.

This book examines the diverse avenues through which different sorts of actors have expressed their voices during the Euro crisis and how their various interests are translated into the decision-making process. It offers a state-of- the-art assessment of what political representation means in this context as well as a contribution to the ?representative turn? in democratic theory. The authors address three key themes:

? The main actors and channels of political representation in the EU.

? Interlocking levels of representation in the EU and the way in which national and supranational representation works.

? How the European institutional system represents EU citizens through law and administration.

Focusing on the importance of representation in the legitimation of democracy, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics, European studies, democratic theory, representation studies, civil society and transnational democracy.

The search for democratic representation in times of crisis 5

Sandra Kröger

Part I: Electoral forms of representation and the democratic crisis of the EU

Compounded Representation in the EU: no country for old parliaments? 37

Johannes Pollak

Party strategies towards interest groups in a Europeanized Europe 70

Anne Rasmussen and Gert-Jan Lindeboom

The Structure of EU-representation and the Crisis 105

John Erik Fossum

Representation in the Councils of the EU 140

Daniel Naurin

The Committee of the Regions as representative assembly: mission impossible or miracle in the making? 176

Simona Piattoni

Part II: Non-electoral forms of representation in multi-level representation in times of crisis

Representation and network governance in Europe 216

Martino Maggetti

The European Commission and political representation: A new inter-institutional perspective 250

Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán and Stijn Smismans

The involvement of the constituencies of European umbrella organizations in EU affairs 287

Sandra Kröger

Democratic representation in transnational citizens’ forums? 324

Dawid Friedrich

Mediated representative politics: the Euro-crisis and the politicization

of the EU 366

Hans-Jörg Trenz

Who is the Guardian for Constitutionalism in Europe after the Financial Crisis? 400

Michelle Everson and Christian Joerges

Part III: Concluding essays

Representation as the Cornerstone for Efficient and Legitimate

Governance 429

Beate Kohler-Koch

Concluding Notes: Rethinking Political Representation in a Supranational Context 472

Dario Castiglione

Sandra Kröger is a lecturer at the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter, UK.