European Union: Political Aspects

by Mario Telò Free University of Brussels, Belgium

Table of contents

0. Introduction. European democracy within the state and between the states

1  The idea of a constitutional democratic polity for Europe

2. The role of democratic federalism by the EC/EU democratization process

3. The early federal-functional model of European democratization

4. Towards new ways of building a democratic European Union: theoretical debates

5. The “Constitutional momentum” and the Constitutional Treaty of 2004

6. The EU democracy through the process of constitutionalization without Constitution

7. The European Parliament at the centre of EU supranational democracy.

8. The controversy about the EU “democratic deficit” and its perspectives

9. Is the EU democratic experiment an isolated case study? Or is it both a laboratory and a reference for democratic regional cooperation abroad?

10. Conclusions: five criteria for supranational democracy and the EU role in international democratization