A clear political theory and a single Treaty on the Constitution of the European Union is needed
We need a more clearly articulated political theory of the European Union and European integration. In addition, we need to consolidate the European Treaties in a single Treaty on the Constitution of the European Union.
When thinking about what democratic government entails on a continental scale - and what challenges it poses - we can of course look to the theorists of the American Union across the Atlantic. But although the American literature is both rich and highly developed there remains a need to take the peculiarities of the European situation into account.
My starting point is that we have built a quasi-federal Europe already. In the majority of domains today's European Union is more integrated than the union of former colonies that made up the early American Republic. Nevertheless, this political reality is neither reflected in public consciousness nor in a widely shared sense that we are sharing a quasi-constitutional order as Europeans.
My impression after spending time in Brussels – both within and outside of the EU institutions – is that the much bemoaned “democratic deficit” of the EU relates less to the formal institutional set-up of the Union, and more to the lack of attention that the national media landscapes dedicate to EU politics. In other words, the democratic deficit is primarily a problem relating to the public consciousness and awareness of Union politics in the member states.
If the problem at heart is one of public consciousness, then a more honest acknowledgement is needed of the European governance structure that we have in fact already created. And in practice this means calling a spade for a spade and consolidating the European Treaties in a single Treaty on the Constitution of the European Union.
Such a proposal will of course lead to significant debate and controversy during the ratification process, and there is understandably much hesitance regarding such a move given the memories of the failed attempt to ratify such a constitutional treaty in the early 2000s. But the debate that would be unleashed by a proposal for a Constitution for the European Union is exactly what the EU needs in order to take its appropriate place in the public awareness of the peoples of Europe.
So instead of seeing public debate and controversy relating to the future of Europe through the prism of fear, it should rather be seen as an opportunity. We should not forget that it was exactly the heated debates leading up to the ratification of the US Constitution in 1789 that prompted the publication of the Federalist Papers. These remain to this day one of the most sophisticated arguments for how to combine the benefits of local self-government with constructing a union that is capable of addressing the issues that can only be successfully dealt with by a political system on a continental scale.
As Europe face new and unprecedented challenges, making the commitment to one another within the European Union, will do us good. I welcome a vigorous debate about it.
