Research project The ”right to participate in the democratic life of the Union” in the national context

This project fills a critical research gap by developing a comprehensive legal framework for how the EU constitutional “right to participate in the democratic life of the Union” (Article 10(3) TEU) finds expression in the national context. The boundaries of this “democratic life of the Union” are charted through identifying and analysing key rights and obligations following from Article 10(3) TEU for Member State governments, national and local agencies and institutions – focusing on Sweden as the reference case, while also offering contrasting perspectives from selected Member States.

Building on the analysis developed by the author in her thesis, the project elaborates which rights are at the ‘core’ of democratic life of the Union and consequently have direct effect, and which are at the ‘periphery’, which while not possessing direct effect, should still inform the interpretation of national law. A typology of rights and obligations expressed at the national level is drawn up, including prominent representative and participatory democracy rights and obligations related to participation in EU elections, EU law-making, EU rule-making, transparency and democratic innovations. Proceeding from the legal framework developed, the project concentrates on participation in EU law-making and EU rulemaking from the Swedish perspective and the obligations related to consulting in negotiating and implementing EU law through government consultation (Remissväsendet) and agency consultation for EU rule-making (myndighetssamråd). Through interviews with Swedish government officials, agency experts and civil society representatives the research ascertains whether and how identified obligations find expression in practice.

The legal framework and analysis developed through this project will provide Member State legal practitioners and actors with solid legal foundation to apply Article 10(3) TEU to their various legal orders e.g. strengthening opportunities to enhance transparency and avenues for democratic participation through, inter alia, litigation at domestic courts, referral to soft law accountability mechanisms such as parliamentary ombudsmen and further developing legal doctrinal research on the subject. Beyond this, at the Swedish level, the legal and empirical analysis will provide a legal framing and starting point for debates on the state of play of consultation by Swedish agencies as well as reform of the Swedish government consultation (Remissväsendet).