We often think of democratic deficits as abstract — something that lives in Brussels conference rooms and academic papers. But in practice, power without accountability isn’t just theoretical. It shows up in the bills you pay, the apps you use, the water you drink, and the politicians you never seem to be able to reach.
Here’s how it plays out across key sectors:
Climate and energy — lofty goals, murky delivery
Europe’s climate policy is a paradox: ambitious in targets, opaque in implementation.
The EU Green Deal sets sweeping goals — net-zero by 2050, 55% cuts by 2030 — but the actual delivery is delegated to national plans, industry “stakeholders”, and carbon markets managed by algorithm. If your gas bill spikes because of emissions trading speculation or a misfired energy levy, good luck finding the responsible face. Was it the Commission? Your energy regulator? A state secretary you’ve never heard of?
Meanwhile, greenwashing is rife. Companies meet vague sustainability targets by buying offset credits from halfway across the world, often in schemes that never get audited. You pay more for “climate-responsible” power. The rainforest remains unimpressed.
Who’s in charge? That depends on what’s gone wrong.
Technology and digital policy — innovation without supervision
Europe likes to present itself as the grown-up in the tech room. And to be fair, the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act are bold steps. But the real power still lies elsewhere.
Big Tech firms routinely outmanoeuvre regulators. Meta, Amazon, and Google lobby EU institutions with armies of well-briefed consultants. National data protection authorities are unevenly resourced, and cross-border enforcement is a bureaucratic nightmare. Ireland — home to many tech HQs — has been accused of dragging its feet on enforcement to protect domestic tax revenue.
Meanwhile, citizens’ digital rights — privacy, consent, algorithmic fairness — are shaped by terms and conditions nobody reads and legal frameworks nobody votes on. Ever tried opting out of behavioural tracking on a health app? It’s like escaping a hedge maze with no exit.
Who holds the reins? Ostensibly data protection regulators. In reality, lawyers and lobbyists.
Healthcare — everyone’s responsibility, no one’s fault
Healthcare is still largely a national competence in the EU, but supranational influence is growing — especially after COVID.
The joint vaccine procurement effort was a logistical success wrapped in a fog of secrecy. Contracts with pharma companies were heavily redacted, public scrutiny was blocked, and procurement decisions were centralised in an ad hoc EU body with no parliamentary oversight.
At the national level, decisions about hospital closures, digitalisation, or health data usage are increasingly outsourced to private consultants (hi, McKinsey). And when things go wrong — data leaks, capacity shortages, medication pricing scandals — responsibility is sliced thinner than prosciutto.
Who makes the call? Health ministers, EU health authorities, corporate partners — or whichever one isn’t in front of a camera that day.
Finance and economic governance — numbers rule, humans drool
Remember the euro crisis? Austerity measures in Greece, Spain, and Portugal were enforced not by elected parliaments but by the infamous Troika — the ECB, European Commission, and IMF — three institutions that answer to different masters and have very little voter input.
Budgetary rules like the Stability and Growth Pact still constrain national governments, even as they negotiate exceptions in closed-door sessions. Want to invest in housing or schools? Better check with Brussels whether it fits the deficit targets.
Meanwhile, in places like Italy and France, national budgets are “pre-checked” by the Commission before they’re voted on by domestic parliaments. It’s accountability in reverse: the spreadsheet comes before the vote.
Who’s steering the economy? The Commission, the ECB, and invisible bond markets with very loud opinions.
Migration — responsibility outsourced, visibility avoided
Perhaps nowhere is the abdication of accountability more blatant than in migration policy.
The EU’s external border is now effectively policed by Frontex, a security agency with a history of allegations ranging from pushbacks to lack of transparency. National governments cheer when Frontex keeps numbers down — but look the other way when human rights groups document illegal practices.
At the same time, the EU signs deals with third countries — Tunisia, Turkey, Libya — to “manage flows”, often in exchange for funding and a blind eye to domestic repression. These deals are rarely debated in parliaments and barely communicated to the public.
Refugees and migrants are left to navigate a Kafkaesque system where national asylum authorities point to EU quotas, while the EU points to sovereignty. It’s all very sophisticated until someone drowns.
Who’s responsible? Depends who’s asking — and whether they’re holding a microphone.
Agriculture and rural policy — money without mandates
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) remains the EU’s single biggest budget item. Billions are paid out annually — but often via opaque subsidy channels that favour large landowners over sustainable farmers.
In countries like Hungary and Bulgaria, CAP funds have become tools of political patronage. Investigative journalists have exposed land grabs and dodgy payouts. Yet audits are rare, and enforcement weaker still — partly because the Commission relies on national governments to report misuse of funds, which they… don’t always do.
Meanwhile, climate- and biodiversity-focused farmers struggle to access funding, swamped by paperwork or undercut by better-connected agribusinesses. The policy’s supposed goals — sustainability, resilience, rural cohesion — are diluted by lobbying and inertia.
Who controls the purse? Technically, the EU. Practically, a hydra of local ministries, land registries, and family friends.
Policing and surveillance — security without scrutiny
The expansion of EU-wide databases (e.g. Eurodac, SIS II, ECRIS) and cross-border policing initiatives has vastly increased surveillance capabilities across Europe.
But transparency hasn’t kept pace. Biometric data is shared across borders, predictive policing pilots are rolled out, and facial recognition tools are tested with minimal public debate. National police forces often plug into EU systems with barely any legislative mandate.
And when laws do exist, they tend to arrive after the fact — retrofitting legality onto technology that’s already in place.
Who’s watching the watchers? Allegedly national parliaments. Realistically? A small working group in Brussels you’ve never heard of.
Decentralised unaccountability, delivered daily
Across all sectors, a pattern emerges: power is distributed, but accountability is diffused to the point of vanishing. National actors blame Brussels, EU actors defer to market logic, and consultants quietly invoice everyone involved.
Citizens are left staring at a system where outcomes are shaped by committees they didn’t elect, technologies they didn’t authorise, and trade-offs they never got to debate.
This isn’t a call for utopia — governance is hard. But legitimacy requires more than competence. It requires visibility, voice, and answerability.
Without that, democracy becomes a stage play — well-lit, professionally acted, but hollow.