Will the Constitutional Treaty Contribute to the Legitimacy of the European Union?

Heidrun Abromeit and Sebastian Wolf

European Integration online Papers (EIoP), 2005, vol. 9

Abstract: The article explores whether the Constitutional Treaty may provide more legitimacy for governance in the European Union. After presenting a list of normative criteria, relevant parts of the Constitutional Treaty are summarised and evaluated. It is concluded that the Constitutional Treaty's 'added value' is rather small: the document does not make the complicated nature of Union powers and Union decision-making visible and understandable to the public; the vertical and horizontal checks on the use of Union power are suboptimal; the EU's weak 'input legitimacy' is not strengthened. On the other side, the Constitutional Treaty might provide for a better protection of fundamental rights at the supranational level. Hence, as regards enhanced legitimacy, the overall picture, albeit somewhat daunting, is not altogether bleak.

Keywords: Constitution for Europe; democracy; democratization; democracy; legitimacy; European Convention; political science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-08-12
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