The democracy and rule of law crises in the European Union and its Member States

This working paper takes stock of ongoing research and analyses in the Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and Rule of Law (RECONNECT) project, focussing on democratic and rule of law deficits. The crises facing democracy and the rule of law in the EU are in distinctive ways 'meta-crises' because of their structural nature and due to their systemic/fundamental or even existential dimensions. Regarding the complex, interrelated democratic deficit, the areas of concern and potential intervention are at least three: in representative democracy terms, related to a transnational party system, intra-party organization, and electoral rights, to institutional prerogatives (including parliamentarization) and interinstitutional balance, but also to the political opportunity structures vis-a-vis European civil society. In participatory and deliberative democratic terms, related to a systematic application of (novel) direct, participatory, and deliberative democratic instruments. In relation to the rule of law, the paper stresses the importance of taking a broader, long-term perspective, which does not stop at legal-institutional dimensions and the legal compliance with EU law but considers structural and contextual dimensions of the rule of law on the ground, and values the significance of societal embeddedness and a democratic rule of law culture. A key argument - fully in line with RECONNECT's mission to reconcile the 'EU with its citizens through democracy and the rule of law' - is to approach the rule of law in its dynamic, dialectical relation with democracy, in what will be called a democratic rule of law. In the final section, the paper briefly considers the EU's capacity to deal with future challenges and to engage with meaningful reform It critically elaborates the reform capacity of the proposed Conference on the Future of Europe.