Democracy Deficit in European Union

Democracy Deficit in European Union

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
The European Union is an economic and political union between the 28 countries that
collectively cover over four million square kilometres. The European Union was evolved
from the desire of forming a European political entity, so as to end the warfare in the
European countries that actually culminated from the World War II and destroyed a large part
of the continent. The members of the EU are as follows: Austria, Croatia, Belgium, Cyprus,
Finland, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Lithuania, Poland,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovakia, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia and United
Kingdom.1 The Maastricht Treaty was used for creating the European Union. This particular
treaty was especially designed to improve both "the economic and political integration with
the help of creation of single currency “Euro”. The European Single Market was then
established in the year 1993, so as to ensure the four forms of freedom such as the freedom of
movement of services, people, money, and goods.2 The European Union is based on certain
common principles of democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law. The article 2 and
article 21 of the treaty of European Union highlights the same.3
Article 2
The European Union is founded on the principles such as democracy, freedom, dignity,
human rights, rule of law and equality.
Article 21
1 Lucy Hatton, 'Democracy in the EU' (Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2011)
<http://www.civitas.org.uk/eu-facts/eu-overview/democracy-in-the-eu/> accessed 25 October 2018.
2 Express, 'European Union Latest News, Policies, Analysis and Opinions | Express.Co.Uk'
(Express.co.uk, 2018) <https://www.express.co.uk/latest/european-union> accessed 25 October 2018.
3 Koen Lenaerts, 'The Principle of Democracy in the Case Law of the European Court Of Justice'
(2013) 62 International and Comparative Law Quarterly.

The actions of the European Union are guided by the principles that have inspired the
creation development as well as enlargement such as rule of law, respect for human dignity
human rights, equality and solidarity and respect for the principles.4
Another major concept of this particular paper is the “democracy”. The concept of democracy
refers to the involvement of citizens particularly in the political decision- making. Democracy
is achieved generally with the help of general elections in which the citizens elect the
representatives for making the major decisions of parliament. Another major aspect
associated with democracy is that in democracy, is the citizen’s ability to hold the
representatives to the account. Elections are one of the major ways in which citizens reflect
on the decision made by representatives and they can choose to elect or re-elect the
representatives. European Union proclaims that the union was formed on the basis of
democracy.5 The Reform Treaty (Lisbon) enhanced the overall role of European Parliament
reinforcing the democratic status of the representatives of the nations.6
However, it is indicated that EU is supranational in nature and it is also known to be
“democratic deficit” because of a number of reasons that will be discussed in detail in this
particular paper. The European Union is linked strongly with democracy that ensures the
achievement of aims of the union. A ‘democratic deficit’ is known to exist in the EU; it is the
situation that significantly damages the institutions and Unions. There are some elements of
4 University of Oslo, 'Treaty on European Union (TEU) - The Faculty of Law' (Jus.uio.no, 2018)
<https://www.jus.uio.no/english/services/library/treaties/14/14-03/teu_cons.xml#history> accessed 25
October 2018.
5 Caroline M. Bradley, 'Transparency and Financial Regulation in the European Union: Crisis and
Complexity' (2017) 35 Fordham International Law Journal
<https://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.co.in/
&httpsredir=1&article=1017&context=fac_articles> accessed 25 October 2018.
6 The Lisbon Treaty, 'The Lisbon Treaty' (Lisbon-treaty.org, 2018)
<http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty.html> accessed 25 October 2018.