How has civic engagement evolved from a secondary procedural consideration into a core normative and institutional value of the European Union? Perga and Makhno (2025) examine the historical and institutional trajectory of political participation across the EU from 1992 to the present, evaluating how formal participatory mechanisms and grassroots activism jointly influence EU policymaking and democratic legitimacy.
The authors trace how the 1992 Maastricht Treaty established EU citizenship and fundamental political rights, initiating a long-term institutional shift aimed at addressing the Union’s recognized democratic deficit. Over subsequent decades, treaty revisions—culminating in the Lisbon Treaty’s explicit legal provisions on participatory democracy—progressively embedded civic participation into the Union’s foundational architecture. The study contrasts institutionalized instruments such as European Parliament elections, public petitions, referenda, participatory budgeting, and the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) with dynamic, informal avenues including social movements, civil society advocacy, and mass protest.
The findings illustrate that informal civic mobilization has repeatedly driven institutional responsiveness at key European inflection points. Examples such as the grassroots-driven defeat of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the substantial impact of youth climate strikes on European policy debates demonstrate how non-institutional action influences institutional agendas. Although the multi-level governance structure of the EU creates ongoing obstacles to translating public voice into tangible policy reform, the authors conclude that combining formal democratic instruments with informal civic action remains essential for sustaining institutional legitimacy and advancing European democratic governance.
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Perga, I., & Makhno, O. (2025). POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AS A EUROPEAN VALUE: THE ROLE OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN SHAPING EUROPEAN UNION POLICIES. Актуальні Питання у Сучасній Науці, (5(35)). https://doi.org/10.52058/2786-6300-2025-5(35)-238-250