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view that powers currently held by national governments national political life a sense of purpose again: to see
need to be fully invested in a central authority. And yet, politics as a space where collective destinies can and will
there is no public support for these changes. Public be shaped. ‘Ever close union’, as it is practiced today, will
opinion on the EU integration may change in the future, not achieve this. It will only widen the gap between
but for the moment there is no appetite for large national elites and their own populations. Dismantling the
transfers of sovereignty to the European Commission or EU would not by itself reinvigorate national democratic
any other EU institution. The indomitable question still life. However, It will help us see that the problems of
remains how much change in the EU structures is democracy in Europe do not originate in the EU but in the
necessary so that citizens feel represented by the EU? changing relations between states and their citizens at
national level. Once the Europeanization of democracy
has been properly understood the real challenges ahead
Conclusion lie within each and every European citizen, wherever in
Europe they may be.
In contemporary world, democratization is a very crucial
subject. How to resolve this conflict between the Student:
European Union and democracy? The European
I.S.
integration has had a dramatic impact on the lives of 12945756
citizens in Europe, but it cannot be said that it has effaced
the differences between national societies. Although it is
widely shared believed that democracy is the most
suitable regime over which there is a consensus regarding
desirability of democracy, the definition and content has
changed, its applications are always already questioned,
been challenged and been transformed. As we can see
democracy is receding in Europe. Bottom line is that
without democracy our societies will become vile, our
future bleak and our great technologies wasted. The EU
integration has coincided with important changes in the
way societies in Europe are governed. The overall goal of
the EU integration has been to create an ever-closer
union, in which decisions are taken as closely as possible
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to the citizens . Claim of a progression commencing and
sustain more by the elites, than by the masses. The
question of legitimacy comes either from expertise, from
knowledge in the form of technocracy, or it comes from
“the people”, a term that is used not as a metaphor for
politics but as an alternative to the grubby political world
of parties, interests and elites. What should not be
disregarded is what unites populations of Europe in their
hostility to their own political class and a deeply felt
skepticism about politics. The two main elements, that
give rise to the democratic deficit debated in this paper,
are a claim that normal citizens cannot affect the work of
the EU and the negative impact of the integration on
popular support for the EU. There is no single definition
for democratic deficit. The concept behind it is that the
decisions in the EU are ‘insufficiently representative of, or
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accountable to nations and the people of Europe’ . The
real challenge for citizens in Europe is to give their own

120 Michelle Cini, European Union Politics, (OUP Oxford 2009) 121 Lord, C. and Beetham, D., ’Legitimizing the European Union: Is there a
“Post-Parliamentary Basis” for its Legitimation?’, Journal of Common Market
Studies, 165