The European Union's legitimacy crisis: its impact on Turkey's accession

The last two years were breakthrough years for the European integration process with the European Union going through widening and deepening processes. In terms of widening, the EU completed its largest ever enlargement when 10 states joined the EU on May 1st 2004, and in terms of deepening, the EU member states completed the negotiations process and signed the Constitutional Treaty on October 29, 2004. However, the EU faced its largest legitimacy crisis immediately after these two ground breaking developments with the French and Dutch No votes on the referendum on the Constitutional Treaty and with the European public complaining about the ill effects of enlargement. Thus, the European integration process has reached an impasse, which revolves around the European governments’ making decisions without consulting or taking into account the public’s views on these matters. As a result, the current legitimacy crisis resulted from the lack of coordination and communication between the European elites and the masses, which are critical of decisions taken without their consent. What is more, according to Erik Jones, the crisis in the EU right now stems from the populist politicians who shifted the responsibility from their shoulders to the EU and are mis-selling Europe. This crisis now stands in the way of further enlargement and institutional reform, and further enlargement does not seem possible unless the impasse is resolved leading the way to the emergence of a new social consensus in the EU.