ABSTRACT
The European Union is a union of democracies. Especially if it becomes, or
is evolving toward, a true sovereign state (and then presumably a federal
state, a subject to which I shall return below), it should have a democratic
government itself – but what kind of democratic government? The lively
debate on this question has focused too much, in my opinion, on how the
Union should be governed, and not enough on the fact that it is a European
political entity for which a suitable form of government must be found.
There are important European democratic traditions and, in designing a democratic system of government for the EU, these traditions should be the
main constitutional guidelines. In general, traditions should not be dis-
carded without good reasons, and, in this case, I shall argue that there are
very good reasons not to discard them.
