Closing the democratic and legitimacy gaps in the European Union : the role of the european elections
After the successive enlargements, the European Union now hosts populations of twentyeight Member States. The Lisbon Treaty was implemented with the objective to deal with the institutional balance of power in an enlarged Union, set on new legal order created by the Union s treaties, to enhance its...
| Autor principal: | Tosta, Jamile Abraham |
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| Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
| Idioma: | English |
| Publicado em: |
2017
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| Resumo: |
After the successive enlargements, the European Union now hosts populations of twentyeight
Member States. The Lisbon Treaty was implemented with the objective to deal with
the institutional balance of power in an enlarged Union, set on new legal order created by the
Union s treaties, to enhance its democratic character and its legitimacy before its peoples. The
Treaty has confirmed important functions conquered by the Parliament all over its history, has
attributed more functions to national Parliaments and has opened interesting opportunities
for the participations of citizens in its processes to increase the representativeness of its
citizens at the European level. As fundamental aspects of democracy and, consequently, of
the legitimacy of the Union are the European elections for the European Parliament and
how these are perceived by the European citizens. Despite of the efforts in this direction, the
European elections still have not responded with the same enthusiasm. As the turnout rate
has been dropping, the problem of the democratic deficit persists. This may compromise the
Union s legitimacy and its capacity of acting efficiently in the supranational sphere. |
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