Europe in Crisis: King’s Policy Institute on Democratic Legitimacy in Europe

Ermioni Xanthopoulou and Adrienne Yong

PhD Candidates in EU Law at King’s College London

 

As part of the continuing “Europe in Crisis” project (kicked off by the UKAEL Annual Lecture by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, a review of which was done earlier on this very blog) on November 12, 2013 an extremely lively panel of three Europe experts debated the question of the democratic legitimacy in Europe. Held by the King’s Policy Institute and chaired by Professor Anand Menon, the public lecture attracted a range of different attendees, from students and professors to practitioners from the Foreign Office and the like. Undoubtedly, the very topical title was a draw in itself, and the debate certainly did not fail to impress. With the personalities of the panellists clashing professionally, a heated and animated discussion fostered an exciting atmosphere for all those present to immerse themselves in, leaving everyone with food for thought as it concluded.

 

John Peet

The first panellist was John Peet, the Europe Editor of The Economist. Given his long serving background in the civil service, it was apt he began with establishing when the notion of a ‘democratic deficit’ was first spoken of. He cites 1979, which presents an interesting juxtaposition with how it may be perceived now. Indeed, this author was under the impression that perhaps the idea of democratic legitimacy would not simply be an institutional question. However, it was this route which the discussion followed hence the solution considered throughout was the directly elected European Parliament. Materialising itself in 1979, it persisted to be the discussed solution to the democratic deficit throughout the 1970s until the 1990s. Peet argues that whilst it was a resolution at the EU level, it was inherently unsatisfactory hence in 2013, the question would still be put forward to the public in a lecture held by King’s.

 

Peet argues that it was unsatisfactory for 3 reasons – firstly, the Council did not answer to national Parliaments. There was a dissonance with the national Parliaments, as they were hardly even interested. Secondly, by the 1990s, the European project had shifted away from federalising the EU and towards handing power back to national governments. Finally, and this would later be contested by the second panellist, the European Parliament never acquired legitimacy despite being directly elected. This was evident from the fall in voter turnout for the Parliament, as many in the EU still questioned the EU. Admittedly, the Eurocrisis had made everything worse. It encouraged increased intrusiveness into national legal orders somewhat by necessity, leading to Peet asking the question “Who elected Ollie Rehn?”[1]

 

Ultimately, Peet concludes by arguing that there needs to be a bigger role for national Parliaments considering that the European Parliament fails to resolve anything in terms of democratic legitimacy. The money in the EU is national, thereby encouraging a greater role for them in terms of their input. Germany truly believes this, given their accountability in terms of the Eurocrisis. More subsidiarity needs to be shown. Peet argues that even a return to pre-1979 may be desirable, scrapping the direct elections completely.

 

Simon Hix

Simon Hix, Professor at LSE on European and Comparative Politics, vehemently protested, ‘disagreeing with everything’ his previous panellist has said. He began by noting that democratic accountability today was important only to a small group of academics given that the Eurocrisis had lead to re-distributional outcomes. Accountability, however, was important because the EU was about the market, primarily. He equates democracy with legitimacy; there was some winners and ultimately and unavoidably, some losers. It was insufficient to rely solely on the national level to provide this accountability. Hix argued that unanimous agreement amongst governments would be better to achieve this.

 

Hix was famously named as one of the last people to believe in the European Parliament. Pre-1979, national MPs were not useful checks on the government, it were the independent MEPs who were more effective. Hix declared himself a European Parliament supporter because the Council was non-transparent in their decision making. This seemed hypocritical to him – it was supposedly the best representative of the citizens but their debates on legislative amendments were not openly available thus far. Transparency was crucial for him; national Parliaments needed to increase the scrutiny of the Council.

 

There were two different checks and balances with the advent of the Council and the European Parliament. As the Commission makes political choices, they must be more democratically political elected. He argues that there is potentially a need for a choice of Commission President in this sense as well. As for the position of the UK, there is also a need for a UK referendum because the EU is so different now. The UK did not sign up to this current architecture, and the question remains do we want to be isolated in the EU, or isolated outside it?

 

Vijay Rangarajan

Vijay Rangarajan, of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office then asserted that democratic legitimacy is a shared problem across Europe as it is primarily an issue of contact between citizens and governance. Moreover, people do not know their rights at the EU level. However, he noticed, as the other speakers also did, that the Eurozone countries are those particularly concerned about the decision-making which concerns them. He interestingly proclaimed that the new European Parliament will have a ‘significant psychotic element’ and he stressed the need for national parliaments’ further involvement. National parliaments in particular need to work together and ‘put a break on efficiency’ when it is necessary. He argued this could possibly enhance democratic legitimacy issues.

 

Later on, Rangarajan referred to the ‘yellow card procedure’, which national parliaments can issue to the Union legislature, requiring the institutions to reconsider a proposal. According to Article 7(2) of the Protocol on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality,[2] the draft must be reviewed where ‘reasoned opinions on a draft legislative act’s non-compliance with the principle of subsidiarity represent at least one third of the votes allocated to the national parliaments’ whereas the threshold is much higher for draft legislative acts submitted on the basis of Article 76 TFEU on the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). In this second case, the threshold should be a quarter. Concerns have already been expressed on the operation and the effectiveness of this procedure, which he reiterated by reminding us that a plethora of national parliaments have voted against the Proposal for a Regulation on the Establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Furthermore, he stressed that the Council should determine and clarify what its position is and noticed again that the legitimacy has been undermined by the call for efficiency.

 

Questions

What was really intriguing was the discussion that followed when the audience was given the time and chance to ask the experienced panel various questions. It was a very stimulating opportunity for everyone there. The questions ranged from the different perceptions of democratic legitimacy across countries, the impact of the CJEU rulings on decision making to the information deficit in the concept of a ‘European demos’.

 

Concerning the various experiences of democratic deficit across Member States, Hix mentioned that the countries facing financial and social crises feel more strongly the imbalances of power and the lack of democratic legitimacy. Peet stressed that the problems are huge in the South Mediterranean countries as people feel that they have lost control of the decision making which concerns them directly. He recommends that national parliaments should have a bigger role because people tend to vote on national issues and on the basis of national parties.

 

Regarding the CJEU and its potential role in legitimacy, after pointing out the significance of the division of power principle, the well-established Economist journalist stated that the Court is a rather ‘ignored’ institution and suggested that people should probably have more interest in who is appointed as a judge, given the importance of the case law. Hix then indicated this institution is interesting regarding the issue of democratic legitimacy, as it has been found that the Court quite frequently takes into account to Member States perception and tilts the balance towards a decision considering national perceptions, providing as an example the Tobacco Advertising case.[3] The need for the appointment of real judges and not diplomats or lawyers has been also underscored by Peet, after being hinted at by the bright audience.

 

As a final point of discussion the panel was asked to provide its opinion on whether there is potential for a European demos, consisting of the European youth and the emerging generation. This is indeed a very interested topic considering the common financial and social problems faced by youths’ experiences of crises. There are serious limitations on their freedoms. Hix claimed that a European demos would be the result of a European democracy, and not the prerequisite. However, it should be mentioned that, contrary to Hix’ final argument, for democracy to exist, there should be a demos to rule and that European citizens, albeit unaware of the very existence of it, might actually constitute a European demos concerned with a plethora of common social and financial problems at the transnational level of the EU.

 

Conclusion

Although the Eurozone financial crisis has recently dominated the debates in relation to EU affairs and EU law, as it was noticed by the panel speakers and by EU lawyers, the discussion on the lack of democratic legitimacy in the EU is always a stimulating topic. The problem is far from resolved. It could be said that this topic is enlightened by the changes brought by the Lisbon Treaty with regard to new powers allocated to European Parliament and to national parliaments. Hence, the debate seeks new direction in view of the social and financial problems that the EU countries have recently faced. Those concerns have particularly become greater recently as the people of Europe feel disconnected from the decision-making on tough policies and laws, despite the admittedly enhanced inter-institutional balance, for which there is still much room of improvement. It has been a pleasure to attend such a great discussion, which definitely gave its audience ample food for thought. Although Euro zone financial crisis has recently dominated the debates in relation to EU affairs and EU law, as it was noticed by the panels and by EU lawyers, the discussion on the lack of democratic legitimacy in the EU is always a stimulating topic. Moreover, the problem is far from resolved. It could be said that this topic is enlightened by the changes brought by the Lisbon Treaty with regard to new powers allocated to European Parliament and to national parliaments. The debate however seeks new direction in view of the social and financial problems that the EU countries recently have faced. Democratic legitimacy concerns have particularly become greater recently as the people of Europe feel that are disconnected from the decision-making on tough policies and laws, despite the admittedly enhanced inter-institutional balance, for which of course there is still much room for improvement. It was a pleasure attending such a great speech and discussion which definitely gave its audience food for thought.