Constraining the European Commission to please the public: responsiveness through delegation choices

Abstract

When and how does public opinion affect the delegation choices of legislatorsin the EU? We argue the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers limitthe discretion of the Commission in response to EU-wide scepticism andpoliticisation of EU policies. Public opposition to EU policies, theircontestation, and potential scrutiny motivate the EU legislators to minimisethe discrepancies between the adopted and implemented policies. They doso to avoid bearing the costs of disregarding public preferences over thelevel of EU integration. Our analysis of legislation adopted between 2009–2019 relying on a novel dataset on public policy preferences and agencydiscretion supports this expectation. The results offer evidence of previouslyunexplored responsiveness of the EU institutions emerging in the policyimplementation that might entail efficiency losses.