共通論題：EUの将来像と市民社会
EUのデモクラシーと市民社会の将来
―「欧州の将来に関する会議」の意義―
2023 年 2023 巻 43 号 p. 22-43
詳細
2023 年 2023 巻 43 号 p. 22-43
The Conference on the Future of Europe was convened over the course of a year from Europe Day 2021. The conference is a project at the heart of the European Commission, led by von der Leyen, and is not a formal instrument set out in the Treaty. However, in recent years, such citizens’ participation projects have tended to be implemented at critical junctures of the EU. The aim of this paper is to identify what the Conference means for EU democracy.
Previous studies of the ‘democratic deficit’ problem, which is closely related to EU democracy, can be categorised as （ⅰ） ineffective parliamentary control over the political process in the EU, （ⅱ） the executive nature of much EC decision-making and the problematic nature of comitology, （ⅲ） a lack of transparency in the EU’s process, and （ⅳ） insufficient citizens’ participation in the EU and the absence of a European identity. The democratic deficit stems from the joint exercise of legislative powers by the executive branch of each MS in the Counsil; it all occurred as a result of national parliaments devolving part of their sovereignty to the EU.
Thus, the Commission, which is appointed without democratic elections, has a monopoly on the right to propose legislation and plays a major role in the administration at EU level （ⅱ）. Because neither MS’s Parliaments nor the EP can exercise sufficient democratic control over the situation （ⅰ）, there is a criticism that the will of citizens is not reflected in the EU policy-making process. In response to such criticism, the EU has worked to increase the powers of the EP and the involvement of MSs’ parliaments.
However, that still does not address （ⅲ） a lack of transparency to the EU’s process, and （ⅳ） the lack of citizens’ participation and European identity. The EU-wide discussions provided European citizens with opportunities for dialogue and learning, and resulted in a European identity and consensus building （ⅲ, ⅳ）. The EU, given the complexity of its legislative process, has introduced deliberative democracy as a complement to aggregative democracy, where necessary.
This is considered to be an attempt to distinguish between decision-making and opinion formation, as in Habermas’ two-truck model, and to form the opinions of European citizens in the informal institution, and thereby to reinforce the democratic legitimacy of decision-making by the formal EU institutions based on this.
