Abstract
One of the most important discussions in the modern-day European Union concerns the democratic deficit. The Maastricht treaty, which was signed on February 1992 by different European states, claims that the goal the EU is to create ‘an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen' (John, McCormick 2005, 131). However, opinions polls show that a large majority of citizens find Europe less satisfactory that their own states as far democratic functioning is concerned (Paul, Magnette 2005, 167).This paper considers the following questions: What does the European Union's so-called ‘democratic deficit' stem from, and how could it be tackled? The relevant literature yields more than a dozen definitions of “democratic deficit”, all resting on the same basic assumptions about the origins of the problem (Stelios, Stavridis et all. 1997, 72-3).
