Sulla necessità di una riforma democratica delle Istituzioni dell'Unione europea

The European Union presents in facts such an advanced stage of integration that it has gone beyond the same predictions of the European political class. Hence the absolute necessity of a democratic reinterpretation of the functioning of its institutions in general and of the European Parliament in particular. Hopefully the process of political integration will be an unstoppable process and although the European Union does not exercise any sovereignty over any territory, it essentially presents itself as an entity whose operative power exceeds the same territorial power of the Member States that compose it. The European Union, in its original configuration which makes it completely free from any territorial control, requires, however, a democratic foundation and democratic legitimacy which contemplates a Parliamentary Assembly from which normative acts originate and which exercise an effective political control over the executive body. The increase in democratic legitimacy as well as the efficiency and transparency of the European institutions in carrying out their functions, however, implies a rethinking of a large part of the European institutions and not only of the European Parliament. Only in this way the European Union can enjoy that legitimacy and widespread social acceptance which is the essential condition of the integration process for its very survival. The contribution aims to highlight the democratic deficit afflicting the European Union and the need to overcome it in order to achieve a greater and better political integration between the Member States.