European Union Integration And Deliberative Democracy

The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political partnership between 28 different countries. It consists of about half a billion citizens, and its combined economy represents about 20 percent of the world’s total economy (Briney, 2015). Today The European Union works as a single market, with free movement of people, goods and services from one country to another. There is a standard system of laws to be followed, and since 1999 many countries share a single currency called the Euro (Europa.eu, 2015). This essay will explore the background history of the European Union and the benefits and drawbacks of the European Union.

The issue of whether or not the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union has been debated heavily over the past decade, with the debate heating up even more from the current European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Recent polls of the UK population showed that around half of the UK’s citizens would vote to pull out of the EU if it went to referendum. However, after all of the economic, political, and social advantages of being a member of the EU are considered, it remains clear that leaving the EU is not in the UK’s best interest. Economically, it does not make sense for the UK

Part of the exceptional nature of the EU stems from the notion that nothing like it has ever been attempted successfully before. The European Union is an international institution with a single market and shared currency. It strives to maintain singular goals and make its way towards being an “ever closer union”. Today, the European Union has expanded to include twenty-eight member countries with an influence that reaches every continent. This institution has had an impressive history, but it has reached a point of concern. The golden years which held high hopes of a united supranational Union are long over. The EU faces destructive problems today, which could ultimately end their impressive era of cooperation. The Union has come

Nowadays democracy is sometimes assumed like pregnancy, in other words meaning that the democracy should be either present or not. However, there could be more or less democracy. In fact, much depends on what one believes should be in the scope of its definition. Furthermore, democracy is not easy to define as its boundaries are unclear. According to Oxford dictionary, democracy is a system of government in which individuals are involved in the decision-making process about the affairs of the state by means of voting and electing representatives to a parliament. This essay shall start by looking into the routes of democracy in the European Union, then discuss the notion of a

Over the past several years, the European Union’s response to crises illustrates its resiliency, with the Union itself serving as the main support system for countries in need. Unfortunately the once prosperous European Union currently experiences a gradual decline in effectiveness. Political Scientists Sebastian Rosato and Douglas Webber highlight the issues plaguing the European Union, with Rosato focusing on post-Cold War Europe and Webber focusing on the rise of nationalists and the Union’s reliance on Germany. While each scholar takes a different approach in explaining the downfall of the Union, they each conclude that the European Union is not on a positive path. Both arguments provide valuable insight, however, Webber’s argument appears

The EU operates single market that allows for the free movement of people, goods, capital, and services between the twenty-eight member countries. The union has also been experiencing various problems such corruption and member countries threatening to leave the union due to some reasons that are best known to them. For instance, in recent times, England has been contemplating on leaving the union. Therefore, the paper will be focused on whether England should consider remaining in the EU from economic, environment, social and geo-political perspective.

If considering the European last decades, it is undeniable that, although it still represents one of the largest economies in the world, its role of trustworthy political integrated community has been deeply undermined because of its inability to face external shocks mostly due to its incapacity to deal with itself. It is therefore envisaged for the European Union the mandatory duty to rediscover itself and to make the world aware of its potential.

Legitimacy in the European Union”, JCMS, 40/4, 603-24. ] This concept of a “democratic deficit” first emerged in the draft treaty for the European Union which as we know led to the establishment of the Single European Act of 1986 whose main purpose was to “rectify the democratic deficit in the community decision making process”[ Zweifel, T, “Who without Sin Cast the First Stone: the EU”, p812-40, Democratic Deficit in Comparison.” 2002. Journal of European Public Policy]; already it is apparent the enormous debate around the European Union and a democratic deficit stretching as far back to 1986. Following the numerous unsuccessful attempts to harmonize the change in the Union’s structure, the democratic deficit argument really began to gain power and rumours of its collapse became more dominant than ever. This debate has deepened drastically over the past two or so decades, with scholarly commentators as well as members of the European public all in agreement that the European Union is in fact

The United Kingdom’s participation in the European Union was always a very controversial and divisive topic. But right now it is more actual than it ever was, because of the announcement of David Cameron. He promised a referendum on Britain’s European Union membership, if the Conservatives win the next general election. That’s why I would like to consider the arguments for and against the UK’s membership of the European Union. The biggest difficulty with the answering of the question of my essay is to conceive what exactly the policical interest of the UK is. To keep more money in the country? To protect the short-term interest of the British workers? Or to try to build a Union what can be competitive with the great powers of the world. First I summarise the most important historical events of the common history of Britain and the European Union what is a huge help to understand the present situation. Then I will get on the subject of the pro and contra reasons, what is really complex, so I won’t be able to write about every point in details.

“Most voters seem to take the opportunity to give the incumbent national government a ‘good kicking’ during European elections, as seen in the UK, Spain and France, rather than vote on a broad manifesto of ideas. This is fuelled further by MEPs campaigning on local issues rather than European ones.” This is an example of part of the democratic deficit in the European Parliament. To further show how there is a democratic deficit in the European Parliament I will explain how it is largely inaccessible to its European citizens and how the European Parliament lacks the power that it requires to resolve the problems in the Union. I will then describe some unsuccessful attempts at solutions and conclude with some possible future remedies.

The claims that within the EU there is a democratic deficit, because there are extensive powers being accumulated by institutions that appear to lack a satisfactory level of legitimacy, are cogent. The question of is there a democratic deficit within the EU, despite having dominated many political debates since the 70s, is prominent in today 's society now more than ever as a result of the UKs decision to leave the union, consequently causing the world to develop an growing interest in the European Union and its qualities. Despite being a relatively common question, it is important to understand exactly what the EU is and what is meant by the term ‘democratic deficit’. The European Union was formed after World War 2 and stands today as a politico-economic Union made up of 28 countries who exercise their power over European institutions and operate as a single market for trade allowing for the free movement of goods, services, capital and people between member states. More so, the term democratic deficit in relation to the EU refers to the belief that not all European citizens are equally represented politically by the government responsible for doing so and questioning the legitimacy of those within the EU with power.

This essay seeks to identify, define and offer practical solutions to tackling the democratic deficit which in the European Union (EU).

On June 23rd of 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) voted in a referendum to leave the European Union (EU). This decision was met with both excitement and hostility. This conflict has many shades of grey, as so many different things happened all at once that need to be discussed. People from all over the world wonder about the future of the UK, whether more countries will attempt to follow in its footsteps and leave the European Union, or if the EU will remain strong and continue to exist as the source that unifies Europe.

Recently, the World Bank characterized the EU as a “Convergence machine” based on successive enlargements that leads to significant upward convergence in wealth between poorer and richer member states (Gill, Raiser 2012). We should therefore not be astonished that EU membership remains attractive to nearly all non-EU states within Europe. On the one hand, it is difficult to deny that EU enlargement promises benefits for everyone involved. For example, it brings most notably economic benefits but also political and social benefits. On the other hand, the EU’s ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ approach unnecessarily chases member states (hereinafter PMs) with accepting either the costs of being an outsider, or the costs of modifying their norms and values to fulfill with the EU. Of course, such external pressure is not regretful in all cases such as when minorities are being mistreated. However, PMs

The purpose of this research is to discover the main challenges facing the EU in the near future, by showing the economic and legal problems that the EU will face. These problems include how migration, bailouts and terrorism affect the EU economically. Furthermore it will look at anti-EU sentiments around Europe, which has appeared to spread across rapidly, due to Euro Crises. Moreover, the Legal problems that the EU will face, such as: the process of obtaining EU citizenship enabling migration and cultural clashes, whilst also looking at the statute that enables free movement of goods and people, resulting in mass immigration and the European Convention on Human Rights. This paper will evaluate EU principles that affect the UK constitution, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, the Costa v ENEL (1964) CMLR 425 case being evidence proving that the EU will face challenges concerning its law being more superior than national law, Van Gend en loos (1963) ECR 1. Where a similar principle was set and the “two-speed Europe”, which, is the idea that different member states should integrate at different levels, as it is believed that the more member states in the EU the harder it is to find a consensus amongst difficult agendas, making the EU law very inconsistent. It will be related it back to the question of ‘what are the main challenges facing the EU in the near future?’