Towards a better European democracy: facing the challenges of a federal Europe
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 25 June 2014 (23rd Sitting)
(see Doc. 13527, report of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy,
rapporteur: Mr Andreas Gross). Text adopted
by the Assembly on 25 June 2014 (23rd Sitting).
1. The Parliamentary Assembly notes
that, while the economic crisis in Europe remains a central concern, the
process of European integration, particularly the form and polity
of the European Union, has also become a matter for reflection,
criticism and political dispute.
2. While considered for some decades as part of the solution
for most economic and political problems, many citizens have more
recently begun to perceive the way Europe’s integration has proceeded
as another source of negative economic development, increasing social
disparity and the erosion of democracy.
3. The rise and strength of nationalist parties in many European
countries is another indication of the fact that the political form
of European integration is being questioned. Too many citizens are
turning their back on the European Union because they have the impression
that the more competences it acquires, the less powerful democracy
becomes.
4. To regain the trust of citizens, the main challenge the European
Union seems to face today, beyond the management of the fiscal and
economic crisis, is the need to advance the process of democratisation
and to develop itself as a polity which bases its powers on a strong
transnational European democracy. For this purpose, several alternatives
are available, including that of a federal Europe empowered with
a federal democracy.
5. The Assembly believes that it can provide an ideal forum for
deliberations on these alternatives for the future political form
of the European Union and more specifically the challenges of opting
for a European federal democracy, given that:
5.1 the project underlying the creation
of the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly, in the
aftermath of the Second World War, was precisely the establishment
of a “democratic European federation” on the basis of a European
constitution;
5.2 the Assembly is used to deliberating on how the fundamental
European values, such as human rights, the rule of law and democracy,
are developing and how they can be better protected. For many years,
it has gained relevant experience through the adoption of numerous
reports dealing with the crises which today’s democracies face and
looking for answers to the question of how democracy has to be developed
in order to re-empower itself, while fully respecting the integrity
and sovereignty of States, and how to strengthen its substance and
prevent what might be seen as the erosion of democracy and its reduction
to a kind of “post-democracy”;
5.3 composed of representatives of national parliaments who
can enrich and enlarge the essential debate back home, the Assembly
bridges the emerging divide between European and national arenas of
politics and can discuss available options without committing any
governments or the European Union itself;
5.4 all Council of Europe member States and their citizens
are linked to the European Union in different ways and to different
degrees and thus have an interest in the realisation of institutional
reforms which will re-empower democracy and help the European Union
to overcome its crisis and move closer to its citizens.
6. The Assembly notes that, despite its different historical
roots and diverging interpretations, federalism relates mainly to
the principle of organising, in a multicultural society, a polity
by dividing powers between levels of government. Rather than constituting
a model for an ever-closer political union or a European State, federalism
implies a process of balancing power in a differentiated political
order which enables unity while guaranteeing diversity.
7. The Assembly further notes that the guiding principle for
the distribution of powers within a federation is subsidiarity,
in the sense that responsibility is to be given, in principle, to
smaller units and that the solution to any problem should be sought
from as close to citizens as possible.
8. Provided that it is based on democracy, federalism helps integrate
diversity while respecting differences. A European federal democracy,
therefore, would not mean more Europe and fewer nation States. It
would imply a decentralised government with European competences
based on the will of the European citizens, enabling it to face,
in the interest of European citizens, transnational issues which
could not be addressed effectively by a nation State alone.
9. Such a European democratic federalism would be a mode of organisation
more compatible with the multinational character of societies in
today’s European Union and the will of its member States to share
only those powers with each other which could not be better exercised
at home. As such, it would constitute a political system requiring
a continuous search for a balance between integration and differentiation.
10. For the above-mentioned reasons, the Assembly invites all
interested Europeans and European institutions and States, including
both governments and parliaments, to consider the challenges of
a European federal democracy and to evaluate ways to transform today’s
treaty-based European Union into a constitution-based European federal
union. The latter would decentralise power and strengthen only those
European competences which are necessary for tackling transnational
policy challenges better than any State in Europe can alone, in
the interest of the majority of European citizens.
11. For its part, the Assembly considers that, for historical
reasons and in view of its functions and composition, it could offer
an interparliamentary public space where regular evaluations of
“the state of European federal democracy” could contribute to the
search and the establishment of the right federal balance.
