Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 11/2013

The EU Beyond the Crisis: The Unavoidable Challenge of Legitimacy

Richard Youngs

October 2013

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

The euro crisis has mobilized the masses and unleashed vitally important debates about changing the model of European integration, both economically and politically. Yet, as European governments deepen economic cooperation and the crisis appears to have calmed, European Union (EU) member states feel increasingly confident that fundamental political changes are not necessary. This is a dangerously short-sighted calculation. To build a truly democratic EU, citizens need to have a greater voice in decisionmaking.