Everybody keeps yelling we need more democracy in the EU and in the next step diagnoses deficits in our institutions. However, if you need to build a relationship to the voting public, you need to have a connected, truly European public ready to take on democratic responsibility. Right now, there are several barriers to overcome: Division of the media public, especially along national and language borders. It is symptomatic that there is eg a nationwide German political public reached by TV, newspapers and web sites. This is the sphere directly affected by national politics. The same kind of national public probably exists for any other state. But I do not see any forum covering European matters where all the affected talk to each other. I have got the impression the European public is divided into parallel, mutually non-communicating media spheres. (Even worse, gaps between different social groups widen, decreasing contact.) Lack of knowledge who does what in the EU. Most people around me only have a faint idea of bureaucratic monstrosities, let alone what institutions there are. What is ruled EU-wide, what in national jurisdiction? When I tried to write to my EU-MP before the software patent vote, i couldn't even find in moderate time an easy-to-read, precise summary on the web of the Parliament's working, or who that might be. Realizing that the EU is important. In Germany, election participation quotes for the EU Parliament are way lower than to the national Bundestag - even though more and more power is being transferred. Also, EU post are somehow less attractive or prestigious to politicians and media coverage. It is fairly easy to find an essay explaining the backgrounds of national politics - just fetch any more renowned paper or go to its online site. On the EU level, that is much less visible. Because of that, I have seen such short-sighted opinion-forming as "the Kurdish refugees next door keep destroying our shrubs. I don't want more of that, so Turkey should stay out of Europe." In short, I think it still is a long way until we have a voting public that can be a democratic partner to EU government.