Managing Public Accountabilities in Transgovernmental Networks

European regulatory networks and agencies are one of the most visible strategies of EU member states to engage with the transboundary and wicked problems, such as the refugee crisis and the financial crisis, that confront them. At the same time, their constitution, design and functioning pose a great challenge to the legitimacy of public authority in the European political and administrative order. One of the prime concerns of policy makers is the finding of a balance between effective and efficient strategies to cope with these challenges, while at the same time ensuring the legitimacy of these new modes of governance. In this paper, the issue of bureaucratic responsiveness of European regulatory networks is assessed. Bureaucratic responsiveness is a core value that underlies the legitimacy of agencies and is well studied for public organisations within national political regimes. The question is to what extent bureaucratic responsiveness contributes to the legitimacy of essentially non-majoritarian bodies in a multi-level system. To this end, the paper examines the concept of bureaucratic responsiveness and explores arrangements for bureaucratic responsiveness in a number of selected cases.