Development of Democratic Legitimacy and Transparency
Over time, a number of constitutional changes have been introduced to increase democratic legitimacy:
- The Maastricht Treaty introduced
- the status of EU citizenship, granting EU citizens the right to vote and stand in elections to the European Parliament and municipal elections in their country of residence, irrespective of their nationality (subject to age and residency qualifications).
- the legislative procedure known as the "co-decision procedure", giving the directly elected European Parliament the right of "co-deciding" legislation on an equal footing withe the Council of the European Union.
- The Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force on 1 December 2009 introduced
- a separate treaty title confirming that the functioning of the EU shall be founded on representative democracy and giving EU citizens both direct representation through the European Parliament and indirect representation via national governments through the Council of the European Union
- the establishment of the co-decision procedure as the standard ("ordinary") legislative procedure
- a significant increase in the powers of the European Parliament
- Any EU citizen or resident now has the right to petition the European Parliament "on any matter which comes within the Union's field of activity and which affects him, her, or it directly"..
- Meetings of the Council are now public when there is a general debate and when a proposal for a legislative act is voted on. These debates can be viewed in real time on the Internet.
- The Lisbon Treaty enhanced the role of national parliaments in EU legislation.
- With the Treaty of Lisbon, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which was solemnly proclaimed by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in the year 2000 was given full legal effect.
Read more about this topic: Democratic Deficit In The European Union
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