This article argues that such problems should be tackled not by limiting the independence of the regulators, but rather by strengthening the accountability structure.
Similar problems arise at the European level.
Here, too, the correct solution is a better accountability structure rather than increased politicisation. It begins by spelling out its institutional setting and its context of structural power. The next section focuses on the cognitive dimension of the relationship, identifying the nature of Franco-German objectives, their basis in differences of inherited beliefs and problems in reconciling them. In the final section the nature of the political theory underpinning EMU is clarified and explained and the kind of challenge that it poses for French policy makers as it tests the limits of the republican state tradition. More broadly, EMU is an attempt to redefine the relationship between state and Europe and state and society, bringing with it new political meanings.