The Treaty of Lisbon and its impact on the European Union's democratic deficit

Abstract

In volume 10 of the Columbia Journal of European Law, the editors published an extensive article by Professor Sieberson, entitled "The Proposed European Union Constitution-Will It Eliminate the EU's Democratic Deficit?" That article analyzed the first draft of the European Union's Constitution against a wide array of scholarly comment on the EU's so-called "democratic deficit". When the Union abandoned the Constitution in 2007, the editors invited Professor Sieberson to follow up his earlier article with an analysis of the Constitution's replacement, the new Treaty of Lisbon. Because this article builds on the previous piece, the full background analysis will not be repeated. Rather, the author will draw from his earlier catalogue of factors that comprise the democratic deficit, briefly identifying the primary components of the theory and citing representative sources. For each item he will offer a brief evaluation of whether and how the Lisbon Treaty will affect the deficit.