368 / 450
368
E
UR
A
MERICA
Source: TNS/Scytl in cooperation with the European Parliament (European
Parliament, 2014c).
Figure 2 Voter turnout in European elections
goes a long way to explaining why so many Europeans did not
bother to vote (Figure 2).
It must be noted that the EU has long faced a problem that
cannot possibly be resolved by a single round of treaty reform.
Fundamentally, European citizens’ identities and political
imaginations rest in their particular nation-states rather than
Europe. Acknowledging that resolving this issue is not within the
scope of the Treaty of Lisbon, this article draws attention to how
further empowering the EP aggravates the effects of the identity
problem. The more the EP is empowered to legislate as a co-equal
with the Council, the more seriously apathetic and disconnected
voters become.
3
The problem is such that London mayor Boris
3
Once empirical evidences have demonstrated that the EP is disconnected
from the people, the proposition that further empowering the EP would