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operational logics. While the design of individual institutions
doubtlessly has a direct bearing on the performance of the EU, the
democratic deficit also must be understood from the perspective of
changed inter-institutional relations, and domestic political
institutions must be considered a part of the equation. Such
inter-institutional dynamics are not easily captured in works
focusing on individual institutions.
The Treaty of Lisbon is yet another example of Europe’s
efforts to tackle the democratic deficit, but one which overlooks
the impact of altered inter-institutional dynamics on democracy. It
is from this critical perspective that this article compares the
situation before and after the Treaty of Lisbon. Although the
article places great emphasis on inter-institutional relations, the
discussion will follow the Treaty taxonomy and consider the
individual institutions in turn. While the immediate focus of each
section is on the particular institution, the overall discussion is
informed by inter-institutional relations, with the contradiction
between the reality and the belief that double-representation will
result in better representation being the underlying concern. Hence,
while a powerless EP was seen as a problem for European-level
democracy, an empowered EP could be just as much a problem
when viewed from a broader picture. According to the
double-representation logic, this shortcoming could be
compensated by national executives’ ability to act as gatekeepers of
national interests under the watchful eyes of national parliaments,
which were recently empowered to probe deeper into EU affairs.
As this article will demonstrate, however, these expectations can
hardly be materialized under the Treaty of Lisbon.
According to the new Title of the Treaty of Lisbon on
“Provisions on Democratic Principles” (Title II TEU), “(t)he
functioning of the Union shall be founded on representative
democracy. Citizens are directly represented at Union level in the
European Parliament. Member States are represented in the
European Council by their Heads of State or Government and in