But a fair assessment would conclude that despite some improvements, the EU and its institutions still face a crisis of legitimacy. For example, the Commission proposes and develops law, yet “is subject to little direct or even indirect public accountability”, to quote a recent textbook. The European Parliament has limited powers to hold the Commission to account, and often lacks the will to do so. Indeed, after the Commission was defeated in its recent attempts to increase the EU budget, the president of the Parliament threatened to institute secret voting on the budget for the first time, in order to vote against austerity while avoiding public accountability.