Fostering the participation of citizens as a factor of legitimacy in the European integration project

Abstract

In the last decades, we are used to hear about the democratic deficit of the European Union. In order to tackle that accusation and to foster the legitimacy of the Union, the European Institutions have tried to stimulate the Participatory Democracy and, in general, the participation of the citizens in the political life of the Union, through diverse ways. One of those means has been the European Citizens' Initiative, that allows the citizens to take part indirectly in the formation of the European Law, but the results are poor so far. Another recourse has been the setting up of the Spitzenkandidaten process by which the citizens could influence the appointment of the President of the European Commission, a system that has been used with a relative success in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament. Nevertheless, nobody is sure whether this system will end up by being implemented once and for ever in the next elections. Other ways of increasing the Union legitimacy through citizen participation have been the attempt of setting up a single European constituency, or the creation of citizens conventions, whose efficiency will have to be evaluated in the coming years.