ABSTRACT
At the start of the 21 st century, several leading European politicians began to discuss the future direction of the EU, noting in particular a need to ensure its democratic legitimacy in the light of future enlargement. It is indicative of the EU’s unique position in international affairs, as more than an intergovernmental organization, but less than a sovereign state, that so much time is devoted to the issues of whether it is sufficiently democratic and whether it is legitimate. No one discusses the democratic underpinnings of the UN or NATO and, if they are concerned about the legitimacy of such bodies, it is the legitimacy of their actions, such as NATO’s bombardment of Serbia in 1999, that is at issue, not the legitimacy of these organizations per se. In recent years, however, the democratic credentials of the EU have repeatedly been brought into question, as academics, politicians, and a host of others have begun to express concern that there is a “democratic deficit” in European decision-making and that the EU lacks legitimacy.
