Not that soft or informal: a response to Eberlein and Grande's account of regulatory governance in the EU with special reference to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Abstract

This article is concerned with the dynamics of an increasingly complex and differentiated European regulatory state. It embraces the concept of ‘regulatory regime’ but asserts that this notion needs to be developed further if it is to capture both the complexity and the dynamism of regulatory bodies, including the European Food Safety Authority. The article takes issue with Eberlein and Grande who, in a recent contribution to JEPP (12(1)), criticized the work of others whom they charged with having failed to take sufficient account of the informality of transnational networking and its influence on European regulatory governance. They argued that regulatory insiders are enjoying some success in fabricating workarounds that help to unblock EU regulatory systems, and commended the notions of ‘informalization’ and ‘soft harmonization’. However, such notions need to be harnessed much more effectively to theories that recognize and acknowledge EU regulators and their allies as both the proponents and exponents of legitimate regulatory governance. Supranational regulators need to perform on both public and private stages, and are strongly motivated to share rather than hide or disguise their ambitions and their methods.

Keywords:

• European Food Safety Authority
• European Union
• legitimacy and regulatory governance
• regulatory regimes

Notes

1. The effort invested in making EU agencies accessible to the public is impressive. The European Medicines Evaluation Agency's website (http://www.emea.eu.int/) is a good example along with that of EFSA (http://www.efsa.eu.int/).

2. Dinan quotes David Martin, a former vice-president of the EP, who is said to have observed that if the European Community applied to join the EC it would be turned down ‘on the grounds that it was not a democracy’ (1994: 288).

3. See Chapter 21 of North's denunciation of British and European agricultural policy in The Death of British Agriculture (2001) for an example of intense hostility to the European Union and support for the use of independent international experts.

4. FPA Market and Management Advice reports may be viewed at: http://tinyurl.com/appc4 and http://tinyurl.com/blv85.

5. Podger's views on EFSA's role in providing leadership for a European food safety culture based on high-quality science may be found in the transcript of his speech to the Federation of Bakers (http://tinyurl.com/7v3cr).