It is often argued that the European Union needs legitimation by its Member State democracies. However, there is also a reverse dependence in which Member State democracies need some kind of European Union if they are to manage externalities between themselves in ways that are needed to deliver their most fundamental obligations to their own publics to secure rights, justice, freedom from arbitrary domination and democracy itself. I argue that reverse dependence provides an additional justification for a directly elected European Parliament: namely, as an aid to national democracies in their oversight of Union decisions. The future of Europe debates should consider a directly elected Parliament as a means of connecting national democracies to the Union and not just of building representative institutions at the European level.

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欧盟层面的民主：愚蠢还是必然？为直接选举产生的欧洲议会做更多工作

人们经常争辩说，欧盟需要其成员国民主国家的合法化。然而，也存在一种反向依赖，即成员国民主需要某种形式的欧盟，如果它们要以必要的方式管理它们之间的外部性，以履行它们对本国公众的最基本义务，以确保权利、正义和不受侵害的自由。专制统治和民主本身。我认为，反向依赖为直接选举产生的欧洲议会提供了额外的理由：即，作为对国家民主国家监督欧盟决定的帮助。欧洲辩论的未来应该考虑将直选议会作为将国家民主国家与欧盟联系起来的一种手段，而不仅仅是在欧洲层面建立代表机构。