ABSTRACT
Until the Maastricht Treaties (1991), the European Community was primarily an economic community legitimated by economic efficiency criteria (Lepsius 1999). Maastricht, however, initiated the transformation of the Community into a European Union, which continued with the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997). These treaties vest greater powers in EU institutions. The EU is thus increasingly a supranational regime, substantially restricting member states’ scope for action, and whose decisions directly affect citizens’ lives. These decisions also affect politically sensitive areas that have hitherto been dealt with at the nation-state level (including social and moral issues). These developments have been politicizing the EU and, consequently, engendering legitimation problems. The discussion on the democratic deficiencies of the EU, which has arisen only since this transformation of the European Community, is an expression of the legitimation issue. Many feel the EU can attain democratic legitimacy only if a European demos with a collective identity takes shape (Grimm 1995; Kielmansegg 1996; Scharpf 1999). This can be maintained even if the democratic deficiencies of the EU were to be eliminated institutionally by substantially expanding the rights of the European Parliament. A viable European democracy requires a European demos that conceives of itself as a collectivity, considers itself represented by the Parliament, and makes the latter the addressee of relevant demands. However, in view of the cultural plurality and heterogeneity of European nation-states, it is doubtful whether the constitution of a European demos with a tenable collective identity is possible at all (Lepsius 1999).
