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

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 16 The democratic model of an Unidentified Political Object The EU constitutes a democratic governance system who- se peculiarity is that it seeks to implement democracy at an international level, in what Dahl argues is the third transformation in the history of democracy (1999: 25). This, in itself, represents both a major innovation and a significant challenge. International organisations are associations created by states to achieve common goals but which have not been designed as democratic sys- tems. They are, rather, systems of bureaucratic negotia- tion, which cannot guarantee popular control over their decisions and policies (Dahl, 1999: 19). Following Dahl, democracy can be understood as a system of effective and equal participation in the collec- tive decisions of everyone who is subject to them, thus ensuring popular control of government policies and de- cisions (Dahl, 1989: 88-89). A democratic system must therefore allow citizens to learn about and understand civic issues and to have control over the decision-mak- ing agenda (Dahl, 1989: 89). It must provide an orderly, peaceful process through which a majority of the citizens can cause the government to do what they want and pre- vent it from doing what they do not want (Dahl 1989: 95). In summary, the key elements for Dahl are effective and equal participation of citizens based on the vote; informed understanding of the issues with which the polity is con- cerned; control of the political agenda; and inclusiveness. The development of democracy at an international level is without precedent, either historical or contempo- rary (Eriksen and Fossum, 2000: 15).The EU is not a state and the criteria tried and tested for state democracies cannot therefore be applied to it (Micossi, 2008: 19). But it exercises many state functions and, indeed, the majority of the economic and social policies to which we are subject as citizens have their origins in the EU. Right from the outset, the founding fathers of the European project were concerned to introduce elements of control into the decision-making process to prevent the tyranni- cal exercise of power (Gil-Robles 2015: 20-21). For this reason, both in the original European Community and now in the EU, the classical legislative, executive and judicial functions are shared between several institutions and depend upon a broad consensus being achieved, a requirement which is a clear element of control. Since 1979, with the election of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, there has been a gradual evo- lution towards greater levels of participation and parlia- mentary control of the exercise of power. And the Lisbon Treaty expanded these control mechanisms to include national parliaments. The EU, then, has created innovative legitimation mechanisms for a multi-level and multinational polity (Micossi, 2008: 20), which can be considered to enjoy democratic standards similar to those of its Member states (Mény, 2002). However, the elements most lacking in the European system are the effective participation of citizens discussing and establishing the political agenda and exercising control over it, as Dahl notes. It is precisely the fact that it is impossible for citizens to contest either the political leadership or specific policies that demon- strates the continuing existence of a democratic deficit in the EU (Follesdal and Hix, 2006). The singularity of the EU political system lies in the fact that it is both a federal and an inter-governmen- tal model at the same time. It draws, therefore, on two sources of legitimacy: its Member states and its citizens. Article 10 of the Treaty of the European Union on the democratic principles of the EU expressly establishes that the operation of the EU is based on representative democracy; that citizens are represented through the European Parliament; and that Member states are rep- resented through the European Council and the Council of the EU, whose members are directly accountable to their national parliaments or their citizens. To reflect this principle of representation, all European decisions should be taken by the European Parliament, and the European Council and the Council of the EU. Where this principle is not reflected, improvements must be made. Decision-making within these two branches is not equally democratic, according to Dahl’s criteria. The