Institutional Provisions: towards a Parliamentary Democracy

Abstract

It was against the background of institutional deadlock, decisionmaking incapacity, stagnation and repeated crises and failure within the EC that Members of the elected European Parliament were to embark upon a quest to remedy the situation. The legitimacy which they believed they had derived from their direct election in June 1979 gave them added impetus.¹ As the EC’s first directly elected MEPs, many felt a need and a moral obligation — both of which could be justified in terms of the elections — to do something positive to improve the EC’s and the European Parliament’s capacity to act. The aim was to ensure that the EC should become capable of responding effectively and efficiently in a democratic manner to the challenges of the 1990s and beyond. The intricate way in which a small group of MEPs, led and inspired by Spinelli, were to set about this task has already been discussed. Here the objective is to sketch the broad outlines of the institutional provisions of the draft treaty establishing the European Union and to focus, in particular, on the envisaged legislative procedure.