Alberto Alemanno

After 70 years of unprecedented socioeconomic integration, the EU continues to evolve through processes that largely marginalize citizens’ input. It remains virtually impossible for an EU citizen – not to mention its residents – to express his/her desire for a change in the Union’s direction and hold its institutions accountable. If the post-Lisbon EU has constitutionally embraced a model of democracy under which citizen participation forms an additional source of legitimacy for the Union in its day-to-day decision-making, this has not translated into a major transformation in how citizens participate in the Union’s democratic life, on EU Election Day and beyond. This is concretely due to the absence of both a pan-EU electoral party system and pan-EU public sphere. This research project examines existing reform proposals and suggests new ones aimed at democratizing the EU project at a critical time for the continent.