ABSTRACT
Two main positions may be taken, broadly speaking, in the debate on the democratic deficit. One is to abolish the prevailing imbalance between suprastatism and democratic accountability Thus the European Union would be turned into a democracy in its own right, with the European Parliament serving as the basis for a United States of Europe. The other main option is to preserue the established asymmetry, which is done in the Amsterdam Treaty. This means the member states will content themselves with pooling rather than surrendering their sovereignty, Europe should not adopt a constitution of its own, and the several national parliaments should retain the ultimate responsibility for the Treaty between their governments (S. Gustavsson 1996: 102ff.).
