Trusting the European Union; a Yale debate with recommendations

All of the students who take up the democratic challenges currently facing the EU and offer the following policy recommendations to address them are united in their desire to improve Europe for the future, a Europe which they wish to help create.

The various proposals in this article are representative of the deliberations of participating US students in the Democracy Workshop at the European Student Conference hosted at Yale University in February, 2015.

With trust in European Union (EU) institutions at all-time lows, alleviating the democratic deficit*--both in terms of citizen representation and accountability among members -- has become a growing concern for the European Union.

Credibility in the membership criterion of the EU has been called into question repeatedly in the wake of antidemocratic changes made by leaders of some member-states. Yet there is often little redress to show for it. This has been coupled by cries of too much distance between citizens and their representatives in the European Parliament, with very few capable of indicating who represents them. With seemingly few entry points that could legitimately influence agenda at the EU level, it may be no wonder that many citizens are dismayed with the EU.