Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union and the (Equal) Representation of the Interests of Member States

European Democracy in Light of the Equality Among Member States

Abstract

The history of European construction dates back more than seven decades and has undergone major changes throughout this period in terms of its geographic extent, depth, institutional framework, and setting of this cooperation. However, the nature, shape, and objective of this construction are still the subject of active discussion and debate. An important part of this discussion has been the question of ‘democracy’ and ‘democratic legitimacy’ since the establishment of this cooperation after the Second World War. Democracy is not only a fundamental value of the Member States and the requirement of adhesion according to the Copenhagen criteria but also an expectation towards the European Union. The notion of ‘democratic deficit’ has long been introduced to characterise the shortcomings of the democratic legitimacy of European institutions. However, the approach of creating European democracy and a European public or political space and the role of Member States or national political institutions in this process have been among the key questions of the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’. Therefore, this paper aims to explore institutional reform at the European Union level or a better use of national institutional potentials that would help create a democratic legitimacy for the European decision-making process.  The paper explores whether the various methods of increasing democratic legitimacy affect the equality of the Member States and how these two principles can be reconciled.