ABSTRACT
Citizenship concerns the relationship between the individual and the political community to which he or she belongs. An important aspect of the process is to enhance citizen participation in decision-making in a manner which is compatible with the polycentric nature of the Union. The polycentric nature of the Union therefore makes it difficult to strengthen citizen participation via the relatively simple, linear mechanisms of parliamentary democracy. The political significance of a formal commitment to those mechanisms is therefore a major consideration in favour of the ‘constitutionalization’ of citizen participation in European Union decision-making processes by inclusion in the European Community Treaty provisions on citizenship. The introduction of a constitutional principle of participation in decisionmaking would clearly give a boost to that embryonic link between statement of reasons and participation. The initial post-Maastricht drive towards greater openness and transparency in 1992-93 seems to have abated somewhat and no major progress was achieved in the 1996-97 Inter-Governmental Conference.
