CEPS and SWP set out five pathways towards a more democratic Europe

The EU is going through a critical moment in its history, expected to deliver on many fronts at once, from long-term transitions to crisis after crisis that has threatened to seriously upset its stability. It would be wrong, however, to assume that the EU can afford to ignore its deepest perennial challenge, namely its own democratic credentials.

To offer ideas for the debates that will necessarily unfold, especially as we move towards the 2024 European Parliament elections, SWP and CEPS set up a High-Level Group on bolstering EU democracy, composed of 23 politicians, officials, diplomats, and scholars from across Europe and from a wide range of Member States, institutions, and political parties. The CEPS Young Thinkers Initiative also inputted to ensure the inclusion of youth voices.

Today, the group’s final report has been published and officially presented during a dedicated launch event hosted at CEPS. The report was written by the Co-Rapporteurs Sophia Russack (CEPS) and Nicolai von Ondarza (SWP) as well the group’s chair Kalypso Nikolaïdis. Its key theme revolves around the concept of the ‘Radicality of Sunlight’ – a simple but powerful image that allowed the group’s members to coalesce around a series of recommendations, organised into five pathways that could significantly bolster the EU’s democracy and democratic accountability:

) In the wake of several EU-level scandals, there must be a renewed commitment to the highest levels of transparency and integrity.
) The EU’s various crisis governance mechanisms developed over the last few years must be fully democratised.
) There must be much more effort to make the most of European Parliament elections so that citizens’ participation and turnout are substantially improved.
) The role of national parliaments must be bolstered so they can play a much greater role in EU decision making.
) There must be further efforts to empower citizens through the strengthening of participatory democracy instruments at EU level.

At this critical moment for the EU, our goal was to contribute to the urgent debate on its all-important democratic future by drawing on the collective intelligence of a truly impressive group of people. Kalypso Nikolaïdis, Chair of the High-Level Group and Professor at the European University Institute (EUI)