The “No Demos” Conundrum

Abstract

Let us consider a fictional scene. At the end of a pan-European presidential election night, the directly elected President of the EU addresses the masses gathered at the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels. Following some suggestions discarded during the negotiations of the European Constitution in the early 2000s, the presidency of the council and the commission have been merged through a new amending treaty, and Europe finally has a face, a single face. The scene vaguely reminds us of Obama’s victory speech at Chicago’s Grant Park in November 2008. The European flag is accompanied by those of its member states, as loyalty towards Haas’ “new centre” (2004 [1958]) is still not complete. Most of the millions of citizens who are listening to the victory speech have to do it via translation, especially the older European constituents, the majority of whom do not speak Europe’s lingua franca, English.¹ Each of the main candidates for the EU presidency was supported by the respective national leaders of the main ideological groups and parties (social democrats, Christian democrats, liberals, greens), enabling an emotional link between the Estonian presidential winner and the various national and regional constituencies across the Continent. European democracy has finally come to be, through direct presidential elections and truly European parliamentary elections, with national candidates running as European candidates (all campaigning under the banner of a European party) and debating issues like transnational mobility, common market reforms, energy provision and foreign policy.