Electorate’s democratic deficit with EU bodies

It hasn’t gone away you know. The markets have taken the view that they will not beat ECB president Mario Draghi.

Consequently, the euro crisis that gripped the region for three years from 2009 onwards has abated. But as one of the country’s most distinguished economists, Kevin O’Rourke, highlighted this week, the intersection of politics and economics will again expose the deeply flawed architecture at the heart of monetary union that will eventually pose an existential challenge to the future of the eurozone.

Mr O’Rourke was in Dublin to speak at a conference on the eurozone crisis organised by UCD. The Oxford academic’s main argument is that there is a growing democratic deficit between EU institutions and the electorate. The response to the crisis has been shaped by unelected technocrats, which means there is very little transparency in terms of decision-making and accountability when things go wrong.