Democratic legitimacy of the European Union (EU). Actors, legal-institutional structures and processes

Essay from the year 2022 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, , language: English, abstract: The main questions of this study are: What is the EU actually, how does the EU system work at all and which goals and values is the EU pursuing? How is the EU institutionally structured and who are the main actors in the EU? How does the EU make decisions, how does it act and how is the EU democratic?Corona, the rule of law, migration, the economy, relations with the USA and China: The European Union (EU), which is far from always being united itself, faces a multitude of challenges. The EU is often criticized in the system of international relations for showing a “democratic deficit”. In this essay, the foundations, institutions, and procedures of the EU system are discussed with a view to the central question of whether this criticism is correct and whether there are ways to give it democratic legitimacy or to increase it. In view of the initial questions, the fundamentals, central institutions, and procedures of the EU are discussed within the scope of the present study to better understand the complex relationships and the controversial position. This makes it possible to find answers to important problem areas about the democratic legitimacy of the EU. The aim is to make an objective and scientific as possible contribution to the debate on the “EU Project” whose finality is unknown.