The process of European integration is bringing about an ever‐widening democratic deficit in which the EU is acquiring ever‐broader powers and competencies, which are increasingly at odds with national political interests that have not been clearly and consensually surrendered. This uncontrolled deficit is likely to generate vast social and political upheavals in three areas: the emergence of a European agenda isolated from electoral ratification; a new division of labour whose effects will be asymmetrically distributed across the member states; and an imposed redefinition of national interests. As Jack Hayward predicted in 1996, the process is creating a new political elite for which mechanisms of democratic legitimation are not yet in place.

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