The focus of the third panel will be on the core value of legitimacy, and whether the new modes of governance, while contributing to more effective attainment of EU goals, are undermining the legitimacy of EU actors. In this panel, various types of EU action will be discussed and their legitimacy will be examined. The first two papers will focus on the role of the Commission and its use of soft law measures. The first paper will discuss the legitimacy of guidance documents aimed at ensuring a smoother implementation of EU law, while the second will focus on the use of soft law as a substitute for legislation. The third paper discusses the banking sector and takes as a case study a special type of (international) soft law which has been ‘hardened’ through the entrance into the EU legal order.