Covid-19: The EU legislative process proves resilient and adaptable, but democracy has suffered

Résumé En

This paper looks at the long-term trends in EU legislative affairs and the consequences of the pandemic on the working methods of EU institutions. More specifically, it analyses the resilience and adaptation of the legislative process in the COVID-19 crisis as well as whether it still meets the same democratic standards as before. We show that the number of adopted legislative acts was exceptionally low in 2020. And while the number of legislative proposals by the European Commission continued to decline, the average duration of the legislative process, which had reached an all-time high in 2016, decreased and deviated from the previous trend in the past four years. The pandemic did not allow the EU to work in the same way as before. Both the institutional preparedness and the responses of the major EU institutions (the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU, and the European Council) varied to a great extent. To some extent, the EU institutions and the legislative process have become less accessible, less transparent, and less accountable. Certain formal procedures have had to be replaced by alternative means of reaching decisions. This has shifted power within institutions and also in the inter-institutional game.