The democratic legitimacy of the European Union and its laws: theoretical challenges and practical examples

This article discusses the issue of the democratic deficit and the legitimacy of European Union institutions, and, consequently, of the law they create. The text reflects on the EU as a special type of international organization and its related problem of legitimacy. Theoretical issues of the democratic deficit and legitimacy are discussed, enriched with a comparative presentation of the views of two outstanding intellectuals, one from each side of the Atlantic. The following part of the article presents practical attempts to respond to the problem of the democratic deficit and the legitimacy of the EU, undertaken both in the European Parliament and by European institutions and member states, in the form of the recently completed Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE).