Democratic Legitimacy in the Context of Lisbon Treaty

Abstract

Increasing democratic legitimacy in the whole European Union is a ‘‘healthy thing’’, so as to avoid current crises in the future, which in one way or another are related to the lack of democratic legitimacy, lack of accountability, transparency, and so on. This analysis will show that the democratic legitimacy of the EU institutions and its policy-making process are the main challenges for the whole European project. The democratic legitimation should be based on a sort of “New Europe” and that will come only with “New Europeans”, who are probably missing at present. By the same token, however, the Treaty of Lisbon is a step ahead, and can be considered a very valuable document as it strives to improve the way the European Union functions, but it is still far away from making the whole process a real legitimate one.