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Europe: not without the people!
The dismal state of democracy in the European Union and how to mend it
von Michael Efler, Gerald Häfner, Roman Huber und Vogel PercyThe European Union has a huge democratic deficit – despite democratic values being held high in every Sunday sermon. Citizens are merely powerless spectators as they cannot take part in the decision making process.
The structures of the decision-making process within the EU are not transparent and they are undemocratic. Not only is the principle of democracy being violated by the current EU structure, but also the principle of separation of the powers is being heavily damaged. Therefore there is a need for a coherent concept for making the EU more democratic.
This book offers such a concept. The authors, all federal-board-members of Mehr Demokratie e. V. analyse and evaluate the political practice of the European Union, the Nice Treaty and the new Lisbon Treaty. On this basis they develop a new vision of a democratic EU with concrete suggestions on how to achieve this goal. At the centre of this vision are citizens and the legitimacy of European policy. „All state authority is derived from the people.“ This sentence should be applied within Europe now and in the future.
The structures of the decision-making process within the EU are not transparent and they are undemocratic. Not only is the principle of democracy being violated by the current EU structure, but also the principle of separation of the powers is being heavily damaged. Therefore there is a need for a coherent concept for making the EU more democratic.
This book offers such a concept. The authors, all federal-board-members of Mehr Demokratie e. V. analyse and evaluate the political practice of the European Union, the Nice Treaty and the new Lisbon Treaty. On this basis they develop a new vision of a democratic EU with concrete suggestions on how to achieve this goal. At the centre of this vision are citizens and the legitimacy of European policy. „All state authority is derived from the people.“ This sentence should be applied within Europe now and in the future.