The Problematic Coexistence of Functional and Territorial Representation in the EU

Abstract

The paper explores the difficult coexistence between territorial and functional representation in the European Union. It starts by presenting a rather general framework for the analysis of territorial and functional claims that distinguished between ‘lumpy’ claims — indivisible claims that can be made only by representatives of collective actors on the basis of shared identities and that cannot, therefore, be parceled out or compromised upon — and ‘divisible’ claims — claims forthcoming from individual actors that can be aggregated and presented as ‘categorical’, but whose aggregation does not give rise to any collective identity. After discussing (and discarding) the more radical views that consider territorial representation as wholly outdated and ineffective, it sketches two more nuanced solutions to the problematic coexistence of territorial and functional representation — democratic experimentalism and multi-level governance — that purport to describe the ways in which binding decisions are made in the EU. It concludes that the representational mixes embodied in these solutions are indeed viable, but that they both require the willingness on the part of territorial and functional representatives to shed their ‘lumpy’ claims and to be ready to compromise over ‘divisible’ claims.