European Food Safety Authority - En studie av legitimitet i en europeisk expertmyndighet
Input legitimacyEuropean Food Safety AuthorityOutput legitimacyBSE/TSEGMORisk societyPoliticised sciencePolitical and administrative sciencesStatsvetenskapFörvaltningskunskapLaw and Political Science
This essay analyses the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) legitimacy. Theories on input- and output legitimacy are used in the examination. After analysing stakeholder representation, forum for deliberation, transparency, independence, and information sharing, input legitimacy in EFSA is assessed to be high. Output legitimacy was examined through the authority's outcome effectiveness, which was divided into compliance and effectiveness. Since food safety is an immense area, two important parts were chosen for the analysis of output legitimacy; transmissible/bovine spongiform encephalopathy (TSE/BSE) and genetically modified organisms (GMO). The essay reveals insufficient output legitimacy on the two areas, partly deriving from restricting circumstances like the mentality of risk society, politicised science, and a differing risk view between experts and politicians. Despite this, using Scharpf's thoughts on compensation, EFSA can be described as legitimate in the sense that the high input legitimacy compensates for the lower output legitimacy. The essay also constructively states that, as it is possible to discern that high input legitimacy has a positive effect on output legitimacy, EFSA should continue to develop input legitimacy and hence become more visible in Europe. This could result in normative powers, and thus an improvement of the output legitimacy despite the restricting circumstances.