369 / 450
Democratic Implications of the Treaty of Lisbon
369
Johnson has characterized European elections as “a complete
sham,” and the EP as “a gigantic waste of money
—
and yet the real
tragedy is that with every year the parliament loses public support
and public interest, it gains in practical power” (Johnson, 2014).
His characterization appears to be supported by polling results. As
Figures 3 and 4 show, the decline in public trust of the European
Parliament, and of the European Union as a whole, has been
remarkably steady. Figure 5 provides a comparison of voter apathy
and disillusion with the European elections. Clearly, among
abstainers there is a significant drop in belief that the EP takes into
consideration the concerns of European citizens, and few now care
which candidates are elected to the EP. In spite of the efforts and
resources dedicated to informing citizens, and the EP’s slogan,
“
This time, it’s different,
” fewer respondents remember having
been reached by the campaign.
4
In short, power is being transferred from representatives
voters are relatively familiar with and connected to
—
that is,
national representatives
—
to distant representatives from whom
they feel disconnected. In the afore-mentioned British polls, only
27% could name José Manuel Barroso as president of the
Commission, while 19% believed Angela Markel was the
Commission president.
worsen the democratic deficit becomes a logical rather than empirical
question.
4
While the euro crisis makes it more difficult to interpret survey data, the
long-term trend has been clear and steady. Now that the euro crisis
has
taken
place, unless we simply discard all evidence available to us, it is almost
impossible to differentiate public opinions that reflect the impact of the crisis
from those that do not. In addition, the euro crisis is not necessarily
exogenous to the democratic deficit. If the lack of transparency and scrutiny
are integral to what has led to the crisis, then utilizing the survey data here is
justified.