THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM OF THE EUROPEAN-UNION

The European Union violates three fundamental constitutional principle s: the principle of the separation of powers, the democratic principle and the principle of subsidiarity. Centralisation and the democracy d eficit explain the Union's interest group bias. The only way of closin g the Union's democracy deficit that is compatible with the principle of subsidiarity is to strengthen the role of the parliaments of the me mber-States. Since democratic legitimacy is a European public good, th e Treaty has to incorporate the national parliaments in the European l egislative process. Subsidiarity also requires incentive-compatible so lutions for the European Court and the European fiscal constitution. ( C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.