What Lisbon has done to reduce 'democratic deficit' in the EU

Ayreon

hey there folks,

I'm a final year law student and a section of an assignment at the moment is what the changes in Lisbon will do to reduce 'democratic deficit' in the European Union. With such a new treaty there doesn't appear to be much literature to be found regarding this specific issue.

I'd be greatly appreciative if anyone with a strong knowledge of the treaty itself could point out any particular areas where Lisbon will address this topic. It's a rather daunting text to start milling through randomly from scratch!

Many thanks in advance!

Reloc8

I'm almost sorry to reply to this thread, because you'll probably get an email saying 'such and such has replied to your thread' and optimistically you'll click on in here expecting something intelligent and useful.

Herrow ! *waves*

In the meantime, I presume you actually enjoy waves of crazy crashing around your very well phrased question.

2040

just talk about codecision for as long as possible?

Tom Young

Justice Donal Barrington a former Supreme Court judge debated this in the Village Magazine before the referendum, I think against Joe Higgins (?). I liked Barrington's explanations.

I also think Vincent Browne did a review of the political stances in re. your question in the first referendum.

They have a website too I think.

Tom

MrMicra

Depends how long it is; what are the differences between codecision and the new ordinary legislative procedure; then put in all the same stuff as previous discussions about the 'democratic deficit'

Long Onion

The Treaty contains some important measures to bring the workings of the EU closer to the Member States and to make them more accessible. There are new proposals establishing permanent structures to involve civil society and the churches in dialogue. There is the Citizen's Initiative whereby one million citizens from 15 or more Member States can initiate policies.

But most importantly there is a new role for National Parliaments in the legislative process. Under the Lisbon Treaty all EU legislative proposals must be forwarded to national parliaments at the same time as they are sent to the EU Parliament and to the Council from the Commission.
Each National Parliament can offer its own considered opinion to the Commission on whether an individual proposal complies with the principle of subsidiarity. One third of National Parliaments can cause a legislative proposal to be reviewed (the yellow card); one half of National Parliaments can cause a legislative proposal to be amended or withdrawn; and as a last resort each National Parliament can appeal against a legislative proposal to the European Court of Justice.

If one were to view the Treaty as above, it could be argued that the Lisbon Treaty does indeed reduce the deficit. Interesting enough (from the point of view of an essay especially) the fact that the Treaty is, however, being ratified by governments, in spite of the fact that it would most likely be rejected if it was put for democratic referenda is a strong argument against it's real ability to reduce the deficit at all.