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

IMPROVING THE DEMOCRATIC FOUNDATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION: BRINGING THE EUROPEAN UNION CLOSER TO ITS CITIZENS 19 that if states do not want progress then it won’t be al- lowed to happen, combined with the lack of leadership as a result of the German elections in September 2021 and the French ones in April 2022. We hope that this trend can be reversed and that the conference will have a genuine effect in broadening the voices involved in establishing the political direction of the EU, making it more democratic. Proposals to strengthen the democratic processes of the EU “How to strengthen democratic processes governing the European Union” is one of the nine themes identified as a goal of the conference’s work by the inter-institutional declaration (European Parliament, Council and European Commission, 2021: 4). In this part of the article, we will consider some proposals with the aim of improving va- rious aspects along the dimensions proposed by Dahl and which we think are the weakest points of the European political model. These objectives are: that citizens should be aware of and understand the European political pro- cess; effective and equal participation in the vote; control of the political and legislative agenda; and accountability. The majority of these do not even require revision of the Treaties and are encompassed within the logic of the political process of the EU, whose democratic credentials have been adapted and improved since 1979. Improve representative democracy, strengthening the legislative competencies and control of the European Parliament As we have seen, article 10 TEU identifies the democratic basis of the EU in the definition of policies, decision- making and legislative approval by institutions which directly represent citizens (European Parliament) and Member states (European Council/Council of the EU). However, when it comes to regulating the different legal bases, the Treaty is not completely consistent with this statement. Establishing the strategic orientation of the EU is the sole responsibility of the European Council, according to article 15.1. It is true that the European Par- liament has, through its role in approving the President of the Commission, found an indirect route to influence the political direction of the EU, something it has enhanced by signing inter-institutional agreements. However, for citizens to have accurate and reliable knowledge of the operation of the EU, the Treaty should be reformed to assign the function of establishing the strategic direction of the EU to the European Council and the Parliament, on an equal basis, alongside the President of the Com- mission. As far as legislative procedures are concerned, there are still around thirty legal bases in the Treaties which are subject to special procedures, requiring only the approv- al of the Council but not of the Parliament (Kostanidis, 2020: 56-61).The logical development of the democratic model requires that Parliament be included on an equal basis in all legislative processes and this in turn means the Treaty must be modified in this regard. The adoption of political decisions, particularly in the inter-governmental sphere, gives rise to a further fifty exceptions, cases where the decision is taken only by the representatives of Member states, marginalising the Parliament (Kostanidis, 2020: 56-61). This occurs in sphere that are now central, such as the “economic gov- ernance” created during the euro crisis, the economic policy for recovery, implemented by the “Next Generation EU” programme, and the management of the EU’s own resources. In all these cases, the Parliament neither ap- proves policy nor is able to demand accountability (Guin- ea 2021b: 101-102). It is necessary to reform the Treaty to include citizens’ representation across the board, both in existing contexts and in the new cases of economic governance and economic policy for recovery. We are aware that, in the arena of inter-governmental policies, such as Common Foreign and Security Policy, this will be particularly difficult, due to the desire of Member states to maintain control over sensitive areas.