5.6 A constituent process for European Democracy We demand the overhaul of European democratic structures and the clarification of division of competences between Member States and the EU through the activation of a participatory process leading to a European Convention either for the whole EU-28 or for the Eurozone alone. votes Further information: A) Key areas of economic, social, and labour policy currently remain outside of existing EU-competences. This results in a heightened use of inter-governmental
mechanisms, often outside of normal EU process, such as for the recent Fiscal Compact. This also results in incoherent and unaccountable policy processes, with untransparent decisions on deficit limits, austerity measures, and hybrid institu-
tional groups such as the “Troika” presenting to citizens the image of a distant and undemocratic power.
This will only be solved through an ambitious project to re-write the European Treaties and clarify the scope of action of EU decision-making and the dem-
ocratic processes behind it. A European Convention is the instrument to do
so. Such Convention should operate without binding unanimity requirements of all
Members States of the EU. Its decisions should come into force if 4/5 of Member States and a majority of European citizens in transnational referendum agree to it, providing for an “associate” membership for those that do not wish greater integration.
To ensure a real popular mandate to the work of the Convention, it should be com-
posed of convention members directly elected across the EU, and not representatives nominated by national governments and parliaments, as well engaging
institutional and social stakeholders and citizenship at large. To this end, a process of coordinated debate and discussion of a new institutional structure for
Europe with all social movements should be fostered, enlarging such debate to the 71
DEMOCRACY
V. The policy proposals