La Legittimazione dell' Amministrazione dell' UE: Tra Istanze Istituzionali e Democratiche

EU administrative actors – much alike national administrative actors – claim to act legitimately on a variety of grounds: expertise, fairness, efficiency, effectiveness, legality (of which competence is an important aspect). Normative judgments on the legitimacy of their actions may rely on a combination of these and other factors, thereby also combining the different values they convey, or single out one to the detriment of others. This chapter sets out to examine the broader legal constraints to the way EU administrative actors manage their legitimacy. Within the boundaries of legality, are EU administrative actors free to determine the sources of legitimacy, or a specific combination thereof, that justify their action? Possible legal bounds could derive from two sources. First, the core institutional features of these actors – their composition, functioning and formal powers – both ground their institutional capacity and allow them to relate to specific legitimacy assets to justify their decisions. Second, the Treaty defines legal principles that ought to ground and frame the actions of the Union. Here the focus will be on the implications of the Treaty provisions on democracy to normative assessments of the legitimacy of the EU administration. By examining these two aspects, this chapter will show the specific contours that the typical claims on the legitimacy of administrations ought to acquire in the institutional and constitutional frameworks of the EU.