Which future voice for the European Parliament?

by
Deniz DevrimEurope Programme Coordinator
18 June 2009
Something seems to be paradoxical about the European Union: While the power of the European Parliament keeps on increasing, the public’s interest in it decreases. In these European elections the turnout hit a record low. The democratic legitimacy of the only directly elected EU institution continues therefore to be questioned. The European Union becomes more and more influential with more than 75% of EU laws being decided by the European Parliament, but in somehow it stays boring. The current President of the European Parliament, the German Hans-Gert Pöttering, is known by only 2% of Germans!