PhD ceremony Mr. M. Duchateau: Het Europees Parlement als transnationale volksvertegenwoordiging. Een onderzoek naar volkssoevereiniteit, (con)federalisme en Europese volksvertegenwoordiging

PhD ceremony: Mr. M. Duchateau

Dissertation: Het Europees Parlement als transnationale volksvertegenwoordiging. Een onderzoek naar volkssoevereiniteit, (con)federalisme en Europese volksvertegenwoordiging

Promotor(s): prof. D.J. Elzinga

Faculty: Law

Central to this dissertation is the question in the name of whom the European Parliament legitimizes the Union. A European people still doesn’t seem to exist. Instead, the EU Treaties talk about representation of the citizens of the Union. These terms aren’t very clear about the democratic relationship between citizens and the EU. The dissertation examines the democratic relationship between the citizens, the peoples of the Member States and the EU.

A comparison with American and German (con)federalism and the historical debates about this shows we can learn a lot from those countries. For example: democracy and (con)federalism are difficult to apply in one system. And: many aspects of the EU may be less new than is often assumed. The dissertation ultimately sees the Parliament as a confederal parliament. Its members are representatives of their own people, whose task it is to serve the general interest of their own Member State, without asking any of them to make crucial. However, as European elections still do not determine the policy agenda of the EU, the EP can only legitimate the EU to a limited extent.