The Question of Standards

Everybody familiar with the European treaties will readily admit that the processes of collective decision-ma king in the EU do not satisfy democratic principles – even basic principles taken for g ranted a t the national level. As argued in chapter 1, t he Community Method – not t he sole method of decision- making in the EU, but the most important one for economic integration – is the classic example of the sacrifice of democracy on the altar of integration, and as such it will also be referred to repeatedly in the following pages. However, agreement ends with the acknowledgement of a serious, possibly irredeemable, ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU and its policy-making institutions. One reason for the absence of agreement about t he nature and possible remedies of the EU's democratic deficit is that different critics generally rely on different evaluative standards. The conceptual confusion is compounded by the failure to distinguish between standard-setting and standard-using : between de fining new norms, and searching f or solutions satisfying current norms (Majone 1998). Standard-using is the relatively straight forward process of assessing various dimensions of performance against given benchmarks; whereas standard-setting is a process of deliberation where it is open to anyone to put forward a proposal as to what the standards should be, and to use persuasion to influence others to accept the proposal (Urmson 1968).