Wybory europejskie 2009 – jutrzenka czy zmierzch demokracji europejskiej?

Abstrakt

European elections 2009 – rise or twilight of the european democracy


„European elections 2009 – rise or twilight of the european democracy” is a study, which aims at assesing the state of democracy in the European Union, using the example of the recent european elections. The first part of the article outlines the theoretical conditions that need to be fulfilled by the elections in order to name them as „democratic ones”. The author examines the legal obligations and the political consequences of setting in which citizens of the EU vote on different days and accordingly to generally different electoral rule, without a true influence on subsequent fraction and coalition building in a newly elected European Parliament. The second part elaborates on the political impact of the elections including the meaning of the declining voters’ turnout, on the character of organizational arrangements such as traditional grand coalition in the EP, as also on the dychotomy in compositions of the different European institutions and its influence on the decission making process. What makes this study particularly interesting is surely innovative approach to the lessons drawn from the democratic crisis of the EU and the consequences of the process of putting in place a new institutional order starting from the Constitutional fiasko and finishing with the provisions introducing the new Lisbon Treaty.