Farewell to constituent power? The Conference on the Future of Europe, citizens’ assemblies and the democratic minimum

Abstract

In this article, I ask about the extent to which the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has advanced democracy in the European Union. I critically engage with the claim that the CoFoE’s success should not be measured by whether it enabled constituent power, or ultimately results in treaty reforms, but by the fact that, by introducing citizens’ assemblies to EU politics, it has laid the foundation for participatory democracy in the European Union. Drawing on established theories of participatory democracy, I argue that this interpretation misses the point. To put forward an alternative view, I revisit James Bohman’s concept of a democratic minimum. The best democratic defence of permanent EU citizens’ assemblies is that they could provide citizens with the capacity to initiate deliberation about common concerns – and thus function as a nucleus for constituent power in the European Union. Nevertheless, the idea should be viewed with caution, as permanent citizens’ assemblies could just as well become a democratic fig-leaf allowing EU institutions to reject calls for fundamental reforms. Much therefore depends on their institutional design.

Models of EU Constitutional Reform: What do we learn from the Conference on the Future of Europe?

“…Although at this stage it cannot be claimed that the CoFoE and its Citizens' panels have led to fundamental EU reform (Patberg 2022), the experience with them and the kinds of proposals they have produced suggest that Citizens' panels may offer a further alternative trajectory to EU constitutional reform. Given the present procedures in the EU treaties, the Citizens' panels will not be able to replace an IGC, or even a European Convention, in adopting treaty reforms.…”