Democracy and accountability issues in the EU governance system are intertwined in the discussion over the future of the EU and their definition is highly relevant for the EU to (re)gain consensus among its citizens.
Aim of this study is to analyse the overlooked accountability relationships of FRONTEX (European agency for border management) through the theoretical lenses of experimentalist governance. The 2013 Lampedusa disaster, in fact, evidenced once more the need to open up the black box of EU border management policies’ implementation by this agency.
Testing FRONTEX against a “dynamic” concept of accountability and peer review proves to be of particular interest for the fundamental role of civil society in holding the agency to account, especially concerning the conduct of FRONTEX when impinging on non-EU-citizens rights. An increase in civil society participation through this model of accountability is, possibly, a step forward in the democratic legitimation of the EU.
