Democraticità ed efficacia del processo decisionale nell'UE: riflessioni alla luce della prassi recente

This article investigates the features of EU decision-making process and aims to highlight the continuous tension between the need to enhance the efficiency and to favour the development of more democratic mechanisms in the activity of EU institutions. To this end, the recent practice has been taken into account. In particular, the role of transparency in the ‘better regulation’ agenda has been assessed. The use of trilogues to reach early agreements between EU legislative institutions, as well as the lobbyists’ influence on EU decision process, are issues of concern with regard to the respect of principles of transparency and of democratic control over EU lawmaking. The special features of the principle of institutional balance which characterize fields such as foreign policy and economic and monetary policy and the answer given by EU institutions to recent crises (financial, migratory and health crises) have been considered as test benches to assess the interplay between democracy and efficiency in the EU decision-making process.