Democratic Control and Legitimacy of Finnish European Union Policy Process in Crisis Test: Trust, Openness, and the NextGenerationEU

Crisis management tests the openness of decision‐making. This threatens the EU's weak democratic legitimacy. Simultaneously, on the national level, Nordic EU decision‐making is considered democratic. However, this model system is understudied, especially in a crisis that highlights its limitations. We analyzed the Finnish EU policy process’ throughput legitimacy during the covid crisis through one case, the EU recovery instrument NextGenerationEU 2020–2021 decision‐making. Our qualitative content analysis of documents and interviews shows that the process lacks throughput legitimacy, as transparency, accountability, openness, and inclusiveness before the Parliamentary proceedings are limited. Democratic legitimacy is sought through elite consensus and parliamentary control instead of societal dialogue. Our synthesis of throughput legitimacy and national democratic control demonstrates the impact of context. In Finland, this indicates the paradox of openness: in a system based on trust, there is no pressure to increase openness. Moreover, the boundaries of throughput and input legitimacy are unclear and need reconsideration.