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The events of the last ten years have shaken the “permissive consensus” that kept the European integration process going for many years.'Output democracy', as based on decisions presumably meeting the needs of the citizens, is no longer enough to obtain public support. Never before has a process-oriented approach to European democracy been more urgent. This book aims to address this urgency, by providing an account of the European legislative process that is less conventional and does justice to the democratic potential inherent in trilogues. In particular, this book provides: a comprehensive reconstruction of the workings of trilogues, relying on internal documents collected through a series of access to documents requests; gives meaning to the legal notion of informality, understood as one of the most defining, although elusive, features of trilogues; squares the practice of trilogues with the European democratic order of the Treaties, showing that such a practice is compatible with a model of'negotiation democracy'.

“Given their ethnic diversity, to what extent, and at what cost and benefit to human dignity, can European countries adopt and adapt plural democracy?” The contributors to this volume offer answers to this question from a variety of multidisciplinary perspectives within the framework of the integral theory of law and the state. Their shared aim is to explain legal phenomena in the context of other relevant issues and to identify, analyse and critique conceptualizations, problems and situations. This volume is rooted in the historical and contemporary European experience with special cases from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Spain and Canada which are relevant for understanding the European problem. Solutions to the problem are sought through innovative interpretations of the rule of law, democracy and human dignity, which are followed by argumentation about how these concepts, when recognized as European legal principles, can be implemented in order to avoid ethnic conflicts.Following an introduction that defines the problem at the centre of the book and explains how legal theory can be used to address it, the book consists of eleven contributions divided into three thematic sections. The first covers topics concerning the European principles which can help avoid ethnic conflicts: the principle of compulsory adjudication in interstate relations, the principle of democracy, and principles regarding the recognition of individual and collective identities. These European principles are then investigated by drawing on legal and political theories. The second section presents three ways of conceptualizing ethnical needs in multi-ethnic states: asymmetric federalism, dêmoicratic account and cooperative federalism. The third and final section elaborates on issues concerning the protection of minority rights: the role of judicial ideology in protecting minority rights, citizenship, the EU mechanism for the protection of minority rights, and theimportance of remembering tragic events affecting minorities.

The book covers some of the major issues concerning the problematic relationship between respect for democratic principles and the new European Economic Governance. Innovative approaches are highlighted throughout the book: new frameworks and arrangements are proposed on the basis of efficiency analyses, as well as their institutional and legal suitability. Though the perspective adopted is essentially a legal one, the economic and policy background are also given due consideration.The papers presented here offer a balanced mix of empirical (including comparative) and theoretical analysis; several also combine the two approaches, carrying out empirical analyses, then setting the results against theoretical options. Given the relative dearth of literature on democratic principles and the EMU, let alone a comprehensive enquiry, the book marks a valuable new contribution.

Dieses Buch betont das Potenzial eines ganzheitlichen Ansatzes Europäischer Bürgerschaft für die bessere Bewältigung der Krisen der EU. Diese erste transnationale Staatsbürgerschaft der Neuzeit hat tiefere historische Wurzeln, mehr rechtliche Substanz und praktische Bedeutung als weithin angenommen. Werden ihre verstreuten Bestandteile zu Leitlinien und Grundsätzen zusammengefügt, zeigt sich deutlich die Bedeutung der Europäischen Bürgerschaft - aber auch notwendige Reformen:Rechte: Das EU-Grundrecht auf Freizügigkeit braucht stärkere Durchsetzungskraft und sollte durch einen Solidarfonds ergänzt werden. Es sollte auf den politischen Bereich ausgedehnt und für Drittstaatsangehörige leichter zugänglich werden.Beteiligung: EU-Verfahren zum Zugang zu Dokumenten, öffentlichen Beratungen und Initiativen mit mindestens einer Million Unterstützern müssen von Bürgern anstatt Lobbys genutzt werden.Identität und Vertrauen: Mehr Schüler und Studenten brauchen Bildung zu Europa und müssen aktive EU-Bürger werden.Das Buch schließt mit einer Reform-Agenda in 12 Punkten.

The present collection of essays offers the reader a broad range of original perspectives on democracy and the rule of law in the European Union, approaching the existing policy area from new points of view. Leading experts from different countries and backgrounds focus on how democracy and the rule of law are related to topics like security, pension rights, judicial cooperation and human rights protection. Their expert views are based on a combination of theory and knowledge acquired in their practice as academics or practitioners in the field of European integration..The issue of the rule of law and democracy is close to the heart of Professor Jaap de Zwaan, a true European, building bridges between countries and peoples. He has written extensively on the subject of European integration. Therefore, this collection of expert views is not only an original and valuable contribution to the literature and discussion on the development and enlargement of the European Union, but at the same time it is a tribute to Jaap de Zwaan, whose academic and diplomatic career can be characterized as always serving “an ever closer Union”.Flora Goudappel is Jean Monnet Professor of EU Trade Law in the Overseas Territories at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and a consultant on European Union law Ernst Hirsch Ballin is Professor of Dutch and European Constitutional Law at Tilburg University and Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Amsterdam.

Die Beiträge in den Sammelband gehen mit ganz unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen auf Fragen der Souveränität, der Konstitutionalisierung und des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts innerhalb der EU ein. Während einige Beiträge in allen Bereichen Defizite konstatieren und zum Ergebnis kommen, dass die Menschen und Völker der Europäischen Union ganz allmählich in einem Sumpf versinken, in dem die fehlende Verfassung, die fehlende Souveränität und der fehlende gesellschaftliche Zusammenhalt zu einer immer stärkeren Lähmung führen, kommen andere zu einem deutlich positiveren Bild. Für sie ist der Abschied von der Vorstellung souveräner Nationalstaaten Anzeichen für die Entwicklung neuer Formen demokratischer Legitimation in den komplexen Mehr-Ebenen-Strukturen der EU. In der Zusammenschau ergibt sich ein umfassender Überblick über die zentralen Fragen der Europapolitik und des Europarechts.

This ground breaking book looks at the way in which the Committee of Regions (CoR) can influence EU policy making from below, despite its relatively weak position in the decision-making process. In essence, the authors argue that the CoR plays a significant role in the EU's political process, going well beyond its formally limited advisory function.By applying theoretical considerations about the expression of judgment and the formation of will in democratic systems, the authors develop a normative argument about why it is opportune that local and regional concerns be involved in shaping European Union decisions. Moreover, by looking at the institutional development of the Committee, and by analyzing its contribution in key policy areas, the book shows why the CoR is already a very important element of the multi-level democratic system of the European Union.Academics, researchers and students will benefit from the up-to-date analysis of the CoR. Functionaries in the EU institutions, European regions and localities, state bureaucracies and political party members will find the new insights provided in this book to be of interest.

This volume analyses the problems and instruments of European citizens'political participation and focuses in particular on the «European Citizens'Initiative» (ECI) right. Introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, the ECI enables European citizens to propose legislative measures to the Commission by collecting one million signatures in at least seven EU countries. The European federalists were the first to initiate one of the most important applications of this instrument with their proposal for a «European Special Plan for Sustainable Development», aimed at addressing the ongoing serious economic and social crisis. The essays collected in this volume by authors from different disciplines, backgrounds and nationalities offer reflections on citizenship rights and themes relating to the European crisis, as well as on the necessary steps to revive development in Europe. The informative and functional documentation proposed in the Appendix constitutes a user manual for the potential and concrete application of this new right by European citizens and their various associations.

Das Mitentscheidungsverfahren (Art. 294 AEUV) ist seit dem Vertrag von Lissabon das ordentliche Gesetzgebungsverfahren der Europäischen Union. Mit der Monographie wird die Co-Gesetzgeberschaft von Europäischem Parlament und Rat als Mittel der demokratischen Legitimation europäischer Gesetzgebung untersucht. Im Zentrum steht dabei eine demokratietheoretische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Modell der dualen demokratischen Legitimation europäischer Hoheitsgewalt, das mit Art. 10 EUV nunmehr im Demokratieprinzip der Union verankert ist. Daneben steht eine empirisch gestützte Untersuchung der Praxis des Mitentscheidungsverfahrens, die sich insbesondere der zunehmenden Informalisierung des Gesetzgebungsprozesses („Triloge“) kritisch widmet.

The European Commission has alternatively been portrayed as an all-powerful institution controlling far too many resources versus a bureaucracy that operates at the behest of Member States. In recent years the EU has been beset by major challenges coming from the inside (the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty) and the outside (the global financial crisis). How has the Commission responded to these events? Has the Commission changed substantially in terms of its institutional structure or the functions it performs? To what extent was the Commission actively promoting such changes versus accepting initiatives emanating from the Member States? This edited volume seeks to answer these questions by examining this institution and how it has performed in several major policy areas in which the Commission traditionally has been both very active and others in which its influence has been more limited. This comparative study examines the impact that the changes brought about this past decade has had on the Commission.

In ten years 80 per cent of the legislation related to economics, maybe also to taxes and social aff airs, will be of Community origin.” This declaration has been largely quoted, paraphrased and deformed by different authors, creating a persistent myth according to which 80% of the legislative activity of the national legislatures would soon be reduced to the simple transposition of European norms”. This book addresses the topic of the scope and impact of Europeanization on national legislation, as a part of the Europeanization debate which raises normative concerns linked to the “democratic deficit” debate. The state of the art shows that there are many assumptions and claims on how European integration may affect national legislation and, more generally, domestic governance but that there is a lack of solid and comparative data to test them. The aim of the book is to give a solid and comparative insight into Europeanization focusing on effective outcomes in a systematic way. This book analyzes the period 1986-2008 and includes an introduction, a global overview of European legislative activities which set the background for Europeanization of national legislatures, 9 country contributions (8 EU member states + Switzerland) including systematic, comparative and standardized data, tables and figures, and a conclusion with a comparative analysis of the European and domestic reasons for Europeanization.All national contributions conclude that Europeanization of national legislation is much more limited than assumed in the literature and public debate. It is limited to 10 to 30% of laws (depending on the country), far less than the 80% predicted by Jacques Delors and mentioned daily by medias and public opinion leaders to demonstrate EU domination on member states. Beside that general statement, the various chapters propose a deep insight on EU constraint over national legislation,providing much information on the kind of laws and policies that are Europeanized, the evolution of this process through time, the impact of Europeanization on the balance of powers and the relations between majority and opposition at national level, the strategies developed by national institutions in that context, and many other issues, making the book of interest to academics and policy-makers concerned with Europeanization and national legislation.

A Republic of Europeans looks at the changing routes and conditions of the European polity from a liberal republican angle, proposing an innovative regulative ideal for Europe's future. The book assesses the prospects for uniting diverse publics into a composite polity with its own sense of'demos-hood'. It also places Europe's normative evolution in the wider context of an ordered global plurality made up of highly interrelated actors. In examining whether the European Union has reached a point which might be telling of an end state, the book offers a depiction of the whole as an'organized synarchy'of entwined sovereignties, arguing that the envisaged transition from a synarchy of co-sovereigns to a self-identifying citizenry requires the constitution of a'Republic of Europeans'. A polity which, corresponding to the liberal republican vision of'many peoples, one demos', regulates contemporary forms of pluralism, which the authors approach as instances of a'civic polyculturalism'. Offering new understandings on Europe's normative evolution, this book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students in politics, Government, European studies, international relations, international organization and political theory. Doctoral students, postdoctoral and advanced researchers, as well as policy makers in government and international organizations, will also find much to interest them in this book. Contents: Preface; 1. The Global Plurality; 2. Retheorizing Europe; 3.'One Great Republic'?; 4. Reflective Projections; 5. Postscript: Directions; References; Index

Die Diskussion um das tatsächliche oder vermeintliche'Demokratiedefizit'der EU betrifft nicht zuletzt die Unionsagenturen, d.h. die zunehmend an die Stelle des herkömmlichen mitgliedstaatlichen Vollzuges tretenden verselbständigten Verwaltungseinrichtungen von Union und Gemeinschaften. Aus diesem Grund hat die EU-Kommission unlängst eine Phase der Evaluation ausgerufen und angekündigt, bis Ende 2009 von weiteren wesentlichen Ausdehnungen des Agenturwesens abzusehen. Das Kernproblem liegt darin, dass es für die Agenturen anders als für die Hauptorgane der Union kaum spezielle gründungsvertragliche Ausformungen der allgemeinen, in Art. 6 Abs. 1 EU (bzw. Art. I-2 in der Fassung des Vertrags von Lissabon) normierten Verpflichtung auf das Demokratieprinzip gibt. Für dessen nähere Inhaltsbestimmung bietet sich das Agenturwesen damit als Referenzgebiet an. Auf der Basis einer umfassenden Klärung von Reichweite und Grundsatzcharakter des Art. 6 Abs. 1 EU sowie einer verwaltungswissenschaftlichen Typisierung der bestehenden Einrichtungen konkretisiert Christoph Görisch die demokratischen Anforderungen an das Agenturwesen. Das geschieht im Wege wertender Rechtsvergleichung und kritischer Analyse der grundlegenden'Meroni'-Entscheidungen des EuGH aus dem Jahre 1958 zum Grundsatz des institutionellen Gleichgewichts. Die so gewonnenen Erkenntnisse sind in der derzeitigen Evaluationsphase auch im Hinblick auf die jüngst vorgeschlagene Schaffung weiterer europäischer Regulierungsagenturen (z.B. auf den Gebieten Telekommunikation und Energie) von Bedeutung.

This book critically engages Jürgen Habermas's comprehensive vision of constitutional democracy in the European Union. John P. McCormick draws on the writings of Max Weber (and Habermas's own critique of them) to confront the difficulty of theorizing progressive politics during moments of radical state transformation. Both theorists employ normative and empirical categories, drawn from earlier historical epochs, to analyze contemporary structural transformations: Weber evaluated the emergence of the Sozialstaat with antedated categories derived from nineteenth-century and premodern historical examples; while Habermas understands the EU almost exclusively in terms of the liberal (Rechtsstaat) and welfare state (Sozialstaat) paradigms. Largely forsaking the focus on structural transformation that characterized his early work, Habermas conceptualizes the EU as a territorially expanded nation-state. McCormick demonstrates the deficiencies of such an approach and outlines a more appropriate normative-empirical model, the supranational Sektoralstaat, for evaluating prospects for constitutional and social democracy in the EU.

Andreas Tiedtke untersucht die demokratische Legitimation der EU vom Vertrag von Amsterdam bis zum Entwurf einer Europäischen Verfassung. Ein Demokratiegebot für die EU ergibt sich weder aus dem Völker- noch aus dem EU-/EG-Primärrecht. Es folgt jedoch aus dem Grundgesetz (Art. 23 I 1 GG), das die EU allerdings nicht unmittelbar in die Pflicht nehmen kann. Art. 23 I 1 GG setzt demokratische Mindeststandards, die durch Auslegung zu ermitteln sind. Nach Klärung dieser Mindeststandards stellt der Autor fest, dass und wie die Organe der EU diese Legitimationserfordernisse erfüllen. Sodann wendet er sich dem'Ausbau der demokratischen Legitimation'durch den Vertrag von Nizza zu und behandelt die demokratischen Implikationen der Osterweiterung und des Verfassungsvertragsentwurfes sowie der Finalitätsvorstellungen der Mitgliedstaaten. Fazit des Autors ist, dass es - juristisch betrachtet - kein Demokratiedefizit in der EU gibt. Wäre es anders, dürfte Deutschland bei der Entwicklung der EU nicht (mehr) mitwirken.