A Europe of the peoples? – New Labour and democratizing the EU

The intention of this chapter is to provide an assessment of the Labour Party’s attitude to the question of European Union (EU) democratization in the context of both the Party’s agenda of democratizing Britain’s political institutions and of the evolution of the Party’s position on European integration. Labour entered government in May 1997 committed to a wide-ranging reform of the British constitution, justified in terms of rendering it more modern and democratic. The extent to which there exists a thread linking Labour’s democratic agenda in relation to the British constitution and its attitude to the European sphere of political decision-making is worthy of examination.