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One of the most important developments in the functioning of western democracies in recent years is the growth of demands for democratic control and accountability. This new logic’s diffusion can be seen in the constant increase of mechanisms of control over political bodies and authorities, and also in the diversification of these mechanisms. At the level of the European Union, this change is so clear that many policy-makers and scholars feel that it is bringing about a renewal of democracy at the supranational level. Since this analysis goes along with a normative judgment, it is necessary to delve further into these institutional transformations in order to answer the following questions: Has the Union developed a new model of democracy that could be called “diffuse democracy”, better suited to its basic structures? Or is this merely an extension of the notion of “legal community”? The case studies assembled in this issue seek to grasp the reality of accountability mechanisms in the Union and to assess whether they can be considered as manifestations of a new democratic paradigm.