Haste makes waste: How public pressure increases legislative duration in the European Union

While increased decision-making complexity and membership predispose the European Union to protracted negotiations and legislative gridlock, still some legislative proposals are adopted faster than others. What explains this variation? Drawing on models of democratic responsiveness, we argue that politicisation potential – captured by public salience, opinion division, and planned European Union authority expansion – increases legislative duration. To test our expectations, we measure public opinion using Eurobarometer surveys and classify the integration potential of legislative proposals between 2009 and 2019 using semi-supervised machine learning. Our findings indicate that European Union policymakers legislate longer on policies of higher public salience and proposals broadening the European Union authority. These results contribute to research on policymaking responsiveness and efficiency in supranational settings, demonstrating how politicisation affects legislative processes in the European Union.