A Union of Democracies or a Democratic EU?

This essay analyzes the many elements that contribute to shape the multifarious identity of democracy within the EU, pointing out the substantial progress that has been made during the time, but also the many failures still awaiting a remedy. My thesis is that a democratic deficit in the EU, in spite of what some (like Moravcsik) mantain, does still exist and that the Lisbon Reform Treaty does not make much to solve the problem and even dumps some of the not ratified “Consitutional Treaty”’s good achievements. Normative reforms alone are obviously not sufficient to eliminate such deficit, but constitute an unavoidable pre-condition to this extent. The dilemma lies in the tension between two conflicting views of how to increase the level of democracy in the EU. From one hand, the idea of a “Europe of democracies”, according to which democracy in the EU results from the truly democratic nature of its Member States. From the other hand, the idea of a “democratic Europe” in itself.