The EU must become a citizens' project

The parliament in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein has passed a cross-party call for a more open, more social, European Union. Bjarne Lønborg, chief editor of the newspaper of the state's Danish minority, demands that the EU close the gap between citizens and politicians. "The shortened treaty now circulating in the EU as a mini-constitution will hardly be able to bridge the gulf between the people of the EU and the decision-making apparatus in Brussels. It is therefore understandable that the parliament in Kiel should demand that the EU become more social and more transparent. But that is only part of the huge problem the EU faces. Decision-making processes must be given more democratic legitimacy, and the huge bureaucracy in Brussels must strive harder to explain to the citizens of the EU what is decided and when. It is indispensable for European cooperation that the EU rapidly become a citizens' project, and not the exclusive project of its politicians."

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