ABSTRACT
The political system of the European Union (EU), notably the European Commission, is in the firing line. At stake is the allegation of being a political system ruled by technocrats who ignore the basic thrust of democracy. Things changed at the beginning of the 1990s. It all started with the ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht, an impenetrable maze of technical provisions. Political scientists have detected a dramatic increase in the political power of expertise, well beyond the domain of EU politics and monetary policy. It is sufficient to mention the creation of the single market, a plethora of technical measures devised with the aim of assuring the free movement of capital, goods and people. Politics is then taking precedence over technocracy: the EU has now become less efficient than in the past, but this is the price to pay in a process of polity formation.
