Mario Mendez

Direct Democracy in the European Union: How Comparative Federalism can Help us Understand the Interplay of Direct Democracy and European Integration

Durante las ultimas decadas ha habido un notable aumento en el uso de mecanismos de democracia directa como el referendum y la iniciativa popular en el espacio politico europeo. El objetivo de este articulo es analizar los referendums que estan directamente vinculados al proceso de integracion de la Union Europea (iJE), un tema que esta recibiendo mayor atencion de la academia. Se platean dos cuestiones interrelacionadas. En primer lugar, ?como se relacionan los mecanismos de democracia directa con las instituciones federales de la iJE ? Y, en segundo lugar, ?como afecta esto a la estabilidad institucional de la iJE? Para investigar este tema se realiza un estudio comparado de la democracia directa en la iJE que nos proporciona varios modelos institucionales y pone de manifiesto el papel que juegan las instituciones federales.

Referendums on EU matters

This study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament. It analyses the political and legal dynamics behind referendums on EU-related matters. It argues that we have entered a period of increasing political uncertainty with regard to the European project and that this new political configuration will both affect and be affected by the politics of EU-related referendums. Such referendums have long been a risky endeavour and this has been accentuated in the wake of the Great Recession with its negative ramifications for public opinion in the European Union. It is clear that referendums on EU matters are here to stay and will continue to be central to the EU’s future as they are deployed to determine the number of Member States within the EU, its geographical reach, its constitutional evolution and adherence to EU policies. Only now they have become an even riskier endeavour.