ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the extent to which monitoring processes and activities provide the integration in the European Union (EU) with sufficient levels of transparency and accountability to make it the relatively well-governed, deep and sustainable process as it is generally perceived to be. This is a usually neglected aspect of European integration. The chapter attempts to show that the complexity of the integration scheme is – to an important extent – matched by or – at least – accompanied by a complex monitoring system. Looking at EU integration through the lens of monitoring actors and actions, reveals also the specificity of the whole integration project and hints at the underlying political culture and historically determined societal equilibria in Europe. This way, the chapter will inform the new social constructionist approaches to regional integration (Duina 2006). At the same time, we will also discuss the more technical aspects of (good) monitoring of regional integration.
