Les Relations internationales en danger : le Parlement européen remis en question par le défi de la participation aux élections

The democratic deficit of the European Union is not the fruit of the chance but of aprocess of construction which goes up at the origins of the European Community. For as much,widenings of 2004 and 2007 did not have an effect “the waving of a magic wand”. Indeed, the ratesof participations in the new countries members are generally even weaker than in the old ones. Ifthe Central European countries and Eastern had suddenly taken the practice, like the UnitedKingdom, of an average participation lower than 37%, that would become a true difficulty.However, Austria shows that a recent adhesion can quickly lead to a modest participation. Here arewhich sounds like a warning for the next election of the European Parliament, in June 2009.