The understanding of European integration has been largely based on the assumption that traditional democratic processes were not key in building legitimacy of European institutions. On the contrary, it had to be the capacity of the European Union (EU) to deliver positive policy outcomes that should enable the permissive consensus to perpetuate. This panel looks into the capacity of European institutions to produce through policies, i.e. to produce output legitimacy. It includes understanding people’s expectations towards the EU, perceptions of EU policies, and the EU's performance in various policy domains. In doing so, it considers the role of rising eurosceptic parties in this process and investigates the role of different institutions on the national as well as on the European level.

This panel aims at a) investigating the legitimacy of the EU, b) analyzing the role of national and European institutions and actors in this process and c) assessing  the capacity of the EU to transform positive assessment of its policies into actual support.