Is the European Union governed by 'unelected bureaucrats'?

The opinion that the European Union is governed by ‘unelected bureaucrats’ is commonly held by europhobes and an argument wielded by the Leave campaign in the referendum on the British exit of the European Union. The claim refers to the powers of the Commission in particular, one of the executive bodies of the EU, partly composed of a ‘bureaucracy’ of civil servants. However, the idea that ‘the EU is governed by unelected bureaucrats” exhibits a very strong misunderstanding of how the EU is governed, as well as the role played by the Commission in EU governance. This article explains the extent of the Commission’s powers in the EU’s institutional architecture and the extent to which the Commission is accountable when exercising those powers.