Europe, Democracy and the Economic Crisis: Is It Time to Reconstitute the 'Assises'?

The proposals for future economic governance of the European Union in response to the current economic crisis raise, once again, important questions about a ‘democratic deficit’ at the heart of the EU. This article explores how this affects national parliaments and suggests that perhaps the time is ripe for them to proactively assert their collective influence by reconstituting the ‘assises’ (or Conference of the Parliaments) to debate the future direction of democratic accountability in the EU.