Die Europaische Union als Instrument der Krisenbewaltigung

The democratic welfare state is in a crisis. The reason is the decline of the nation state's political capacity. The economy has been able to overcome the limitations of the nation state but politics is still imprisoned within national borders. The European Union offers the chance to establish a transnational level of political decision making through integration and to promote political capacity. But this approach which aims at the deepening of the European integration has been opposed by different interests which have already blocked the Constitutional Treaty and try to derail the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. The EU's so called democratic deficit is used as a pretext--despite the fact that exactly these treaties would increase the Union's democratic quality.