This book examines the democratic legitimacy of the European Union (EU) and evaluates the democratic credentials of the EU s main decision-making procedure. It finds that though there is potential for democratic decision-making in the EU, the actual process is dominated by technocrats and secret meetings.

The book assesses and discusses the conditions for democratic input in decision-making with five empirical chapters each addressing the ordinary legislative procedure from different dimensions: democratic deliberative forums, inclusion, openness, power neutralising mechanisms and decision-making capacity. The analytical framework provides for an in-depth assessment of the ordinary legislative procedure s potential democratic qualities and examines whether it fulfils democratic criteria, how the procedure works in practice and whether it has the necessary democratic clout. The author provides both a theoretical discussion and an empirical assessment of what role the principle of democracy could play in the EU.

Filling a gap in EU legislative studies and contributing to the debate on the European democratic deficit, "Democratic Decision-making in the EU" will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics, legislative studies and deliberative democracy.