Delegation without legitimation? An experimental study of the European Medicines Agency’s epistemic authority

Agencification in the EU stretches the confines of the European regulatory state to the maximum by swelling to policy domains, such as security, that were formerly the exclusive terrain of national institutions. However, EU-level agencies face considerable obstacles to fully exercise their epistemic authority due to grave legitimacy issues. While the challenge to legitimize EU-level epistemic authority is widely acknowledged, rigorous empirical studies on the conditions under which EU-level epistemic authority prevails or fails is scarce. To fill this gap, we provide a rigorous empirical test to the well-established claims about the diverse legitimacy standards: non-majoritarian versus democratic. Empirically, we focus on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and its mandate to authorize new vaccines. We draw on a survey experiment with Dutch local politicians. In a controlled setting, participants were randomly assigned to experimental treatments introducing diverse legitimacy standards. Perceived legitimacy of the EMA and its epistemic authority was measured to test which legitimacy standards prevail in health security.