Introduction: democratic accountability in the EU economic governance post-crises: its many faces and potential outstanding gaps

Abstract

The article introduces the special issue ‘Parliaments in times of crises: democratic accountability in the EU economic governance from the euro to the COVID crisis’ explaining how it seeks to make a novel contribution in the field of parliamentary studies. It first explains the trajectory of the crisis-driven institutional changes affecting parliaments from the great financial crisis to the COVID pandemic. It then introduces the concept of democratic accountability as a guiding notion of the special issue and differentiates among its various dimensions as well as potential outstanding gaps in the area of EU economic governance. Finally, it demonstrates in what ways particular contributions of this collection address the under-researched questions related to the abovementioned dimensions of EU democratic accountability.