THE SNS DEMOCRATIC AUDIT 2003/SNS DEMOKRATIRÅD 2003
Democracy in the EU
Report from the Democratic Audit of Sweden 2003
Olof Petersson, Ulrika Mörth, Johan P. Olsen, and Jonas Tallberg
Summary in English
The European convention developed into a large constitutional experiment. The basic question is whether it is possible to design democratic institutions at the European level. The lessons learnt from the convention, both in terms of its results and the convention method as a process, prove to be of practical as well as theoretical importance.
The Democratic Audit of Sweden 2003 begins with a critical discussion of the notion of a democratic deficit in the European Union. If democratic ideals both could and should be taken a starting point for an assessment of EU governance one could argue that major reforms are necessary. The European convention turns out to be an innovative method for constitutional and institutional change. Sweden made some contributions to the reform process, but the government's official position aimed at preserving the institutional status quo.
It should be added that this report was written during the convention itself and was published on the day of its final plenary meeting.
A successful experiment
Even though a compromise on institutional issues was hard to achieve the Convention must be considered a successful experiment. The Convention has been accused for being dominated by its chairman Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and for its obvious difficulties in bridging the conflicts about the internal organization of EU.
However, the Convention has worked better than the methods previously used when preparing EU reforms. The Convention method has democratic qualities such as a relative broad participation, openness and, on most issues, an atmosphere of constructive compromise.
In the long run the most important accomplishment might be that the Convention proved that the present collection of unwieldy treaties can be replaced by a single and rather comprehensible constitution.
Practical solutions to the democratic deficit
Even if the general goal of a citizens' Europe is still far away the Convention has at least proposed changes which would alleviate some of the democratic problems of the union itself. Citizen rights and freedoms in relation to the EU would be strengthened by including the Charter in the constitution. The principles of representative democracy and participatory democracy would be explicitly recognized as fundamental for the union.
Decision-making in the EU would be simplified and the number of legal instruments is to be reduced. The separation of competences between the union and the member states is to be made clearer and the national parliaments are meant to supervise that the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality are not transgressed.
The statement that individual citizens are powerless in relation to the EU could easily be self-fulfilling. The Audit team points to different ways to influence union decisions. Even though these pathways of participation so far have been winding and difficult to access the situation would improve if the Convention proposals were to be implemented.
Sweden misjudged the Convention
Swedish representatives in the Convention have contributed in some areas, such as openness, equality and environment. But the Swedish government seems to have misjudged the importance of the Convention.
The final outcome of the constitutional reform process is still uncertain. The Convention will be followed by an inter-governmental conference. Avoiding a new Nice stalemate must be high on the agenda.
Democracy is more than the Convention
The Convention has made significant contributions to the debate on how the European Union can change towards more democratic, constitutional and effective governance. But many issues remain.
The quest for democratic governance at the European level must start with the individual citizen. Transparency, enlightened understanding, participation and accountability are as important for the EU as for democratic communities within national territories. Without such a citizen perspective there is a risk that institutional and constitutional reform in the EU will remain an issue for the European political elite.
Fundamental changes in the living constitution and the basic institution of a political system, identity as well as trust, will take decades. It is unrealistic to expect that the latent conflicts and cleavages in Europe would find lasting solution during the course of a year's debates in a convention. The convention should be seen as a step in a long and fundamental transformation process in the history of Europe.
Demokrati i EU. Demokratirådets rapport 2003.
Olof Petersson, Ulrika Mörth, Johan P. Olsen, and Jonas Tallberg
SNS Förlag, Stockholm 2003.
The Democratic Audit of Sweden is organized by SNS, the Swedish Center for Business and Policy Studies, a Stockholm-based research organization. The task set itself by successive Democratic Audit Groups has been to contribute to a constructive, objective debate on the workings of Swedish democracy by highlighting different aspects of the Swedish political system. The group is variously composed each year, but it is always made up of four to five independent social scientists.
