Page 198 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

184 Citizenship

member states. In addition, individuals – citizens or non - citizens – and
member states may also bring cases to the European Court of Human
Rights, which produces rulings to which states are obliged to respond
with new legislation if necessary. The nation - states that make up the
European Union have, therefore, been incorporating international human
rights law into their statutes for up to 25 years before the Maastricht
Treaty created European citizenship. In this sense, at least, post - national
citizenship in Europe was not created by the explicit declaration that
Europeans are citizens of the EU.
Second, however, European citizenship may be said to be post - national
in that the European Union is increasingly a supranational state, sharing
the sovereignty of member states. This is evident in the fact that, as we
have noted, law is made in the institutions of the Union which overrides
that made by the member states. In addition, the EU now has policing
powers, border controls, a common currency over much of its territory,
and even the beginnings of a cooperative foreign policy.
The main issue that arises with respect to post - national citizenship as
a result of shared sovereignty is what is called “ the democratic defi cit ” :
the EU is seriously inadequate in terms of political rights. At the level of
the nation - state, democratically elected governments are losing the power
to make policies and legislation that are binding on their citizens, as
member states give up sovereignty to the institutions of the EU. At the

level of the EU, however, elected officials have very little infl uence over
the legislative process. The European Parliament is the only democrati-
cally elected institution of the EU and it has only a consultative role in
policy - making. The European Commission draws up legislation which is
then debated by Parliament and voted on by the Council of Ministers
before it becomes law. Officials on the Council are chosen by their respec-

tive national governments, not elected. In addition, some argue that the
EU results in a strengthening of the judiciary within member states that
is undemocratic, as European human rights law is made binding on states
without necessarily being made by legislatures (Jacobson and Ruffer,
2003 ). The Maastricht Treaty took certain measures to address the “ dem-
ocratic defi cit ” of the EU by strengthening the powers of the European
Parliament; for example, the Commission and its president are now
subject to Parliamentary approval. However, it is clear that in order to
prevent a lack of democratic accountability as a result of the transfer of
powers from the member states to the EU, all the political institutions of
the EU need reform (Newman, 1996 ).
The issue of “ democratic defi cit ” has been raised very starkly by
attempts to decide on a European Constitution over the last decade.