Is the EU democratic

council of the EU

ministers of the EU: meet to discuss EU matters, take decisions and pass laws

the European Council

heads of state: set europe’s general strategy

the EP

• legislative power: discusses and decides on new EU laws together with the council

• parliamentary control: supervises other EU institutions ans can pass a vote of no confidence in the European Commission

• Budgetary power: decides the EU annual budget with the Council

• Enlargement decisions: it’s assent is required to admit a new member

voting system

no universal system. each state can choose but subject to certain restrictions:

• proportional representation

• the electoral area may be subdivided if it does not affect the proportional nature of the system

challenge to traditional national sovereignty

• increase use of qualified majority voting (80%) for the adoption of legislation in the council

• limiting member states’ powers by removing their veto in the Council of ministers

• expanding the areas in whoch the EU has a role, sometimes, excluding any action from the members: EU exclusive competence

• deeper EU integration so decrease of national parliamentary control

democratic deficit

• the EU’s executive: the commission is unelected

• the EP is too weak compared to the council and the commission

• not a lot of people dont vote bc the EU is too distant from voters

• doesnt adopt policies that are supported by a majority of the EU citizens

• the Court of Justice makes law rather than interpreting it

• lack of transparency of the legislations passed

• number of deputy are not proportional to population: large countries are poorly represented

National parliaments

•being informed by the EU institutions and having draft EU legislative acts forwarded to them;

•making sure the principle of subsidiarity is respected;

•take part, within the framework of the area of freedom, security and justice, in the evaluation mechanisms for the implementation of EU policies in this area;

•being involved in the political monitoring of Europol and the evaluation of Eurojust’s activities;

•taking part in the revision procedures of the Treaties;

•being notified of applications for accession to the Union;

•monitoring EU proposals on family law, with the power for any national parliament to veto them;

•taking part in inter-parliamentary cooperation between national parliaments and with the EP.

new ideas

transnational lists: possible bc 73 seats free. each voter could vote for a national list AND for an european list but it would require to change treaties.

this proposal was rejected by the EP in 2018

fail of democracy

just a reflection of the broken democracy at a national level

consequences of being partially developed political system

may require a different form of legitimisation

a different form of democracy