THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REPORT. Europe in a period of transition

15 Improving the democratic foundations of the European Union: bringing the European Union closer to its citizens Mercedes Guinea Llorente The Conference on the Future of Europe: a new push for European democracy The Conference on the Future of Europe finally got un- derway on 9 May 2021, as part of the sixth pillar of the political programme of the Von der Leyen Commission, with the goal of providing a “new push for European democracy” (Von der Leyen, 2019: 21–23). This chapter will examine the conference’s contribution to strengthe- ning democracy in the EU, and will consider a series of proposals and initiatives to improve the quality of the democratic functioning of European institutions. We will start with some brief comments on the de- mocracy of the EU, a highly unusual political structure consisting of a transnational political system which incor- porates elements of an international organization while also exercising power like a more conventional state. We will then examine the conference itself in light of the parameters established, in order to identify whether the conference constitutes progress in the democratisation of the EU. Thirdly, we will consider a series of proposals about how to improve the democratic operation of the EU. The EU is the product of an ongoing process of polit- ical integration, consisting of several stages with distinct characteristics. Its origins date back to 1952 and the cre- ation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC); today, the EU is a hybrid political actor which combines features of a federation with those of a confederation. The key turning point in this process was the election of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage in June 1979, marking the start of its transformation into a political entity and configuring the EU as a “Union of states and citizens”. Since that date, successive reforms of the Treaties have gradually democratised the institutional operation of the EU, giving ever greater protagonism to the European Parliament in the EU’s legislation, political decision-making, budgets and control of the executive. At the same time, there have been a number of initiatives to bring the EU closer to its citizens and to encourage them to participate in elections. The EU is an ongoing process, and over the last five years a number of developments, such as Brexit or the rise of Europhobic nationalisms, have shown that democratisation and citizen involvement are an existential matter and should thus be treated as a priority.