Project

Discipline

Direct Democracy; European Union; national referendums; european referendum; Lisbon process; referendums; EU; Lisbon Treaty; European integration

Lead
Lay summary
This SNF project is the continuation of another SNF research project [100011-116183] undertaken during the last two years (2007-2009) which was focused on the study of direct democracy in the European Union (EU). The research addressed the role of national referendums on EU related issues and their impact on the broader European integration process. The basic working hypothesis was that these referendums could constitute a stumbling block to the deepening and widening of the EU -a prospect that was readily confirmed by the recent experience with the June 2008 Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. In the light of such new and crucial developments, a continuation of the research project is sought to cover the period April 2009 - April 2010. Given the extensive work already undertaken from both legal and political science perspectives, the extension of the project aims to incorporate the Lisbon process into the original research plan. Such a focused and targeted research effort would complement the existing work that has already been done and bring to completion one of the most systematic analyses of direct democracy in the EU thus far. Apart from the analysis of all referendums in the EU, this research project will allow the research team to undertake a structured, focused comparison of the two latest attempts at EU constitutional reform: the European Constitution, a process that was launched by the Laeken declaration in 2001 and brought to a halt by the French and Dutch 'no' votes; and the Lisbon process, complicated by the Irish referendum of 2008, but not brought to a halt given that the ratification has proceeded. Specifically, the research team will apply the same methodology to the ongoing Lisbon process. The latter has generated a great deal of political contestation and a number of constitutional court challenges (e.g. the UK, Germany and Czech Republic) that could not have been anticipated in the previous research project in the Fall of 2006. Therefore, to thoroughly examine the Lisbon process in this research project - in terms of applying the same methodological tools and analysis - becomes indispensable for providing an overall and extended analysis of the EU experience with direct democracy.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 21.02.2013

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

This SNF proposal asks for a one-year extension of the c2d research project Nr 100011-116189 “The European Referendum revisited”. The project focuses on the role of national referendums on EU related issues and their impact on the broader European integration process. The basic working hypothesis is that these referendums could constitute a stumbling block to the deepening and widening of the EU - a prospect that was readily confirmed by the recent experience with the June 2008 Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. In the light of such new and crucial developments, a continuation of the research project is sought to cover the period April 2009 -March 2010. Given the extensive work already undertaken from both legal and political science perspectives, this extension would permit the research team to incorporate the ongoing Lisbon process into the original research plan. Such a focused and targeted research effort would complement the existing work that has already been done and bring to completion one of the most systematic analyses of direct democracy in the EU thus far. Apart from the analysis of all referendums in the member States dealing with EU related matters, the continuation of the research project will allow the research team to undertake a structured, focused comparison of the two latest attempts at EU constitutional reform: the European Constitution, a process that was launched by the Laeken declaration in 2001 and brought to a halt by the French and Dutch ‘no’ votes of 2005; and the Lisbon process, stuck by the Irish referendum of 12 June 2008, but not brought to a halt given that the ratification process continues. The research team therefore plans to apply the same methodology to the ongoing Lisbon process. The latter has generated a great deal of political contestation and a number of constitutional court challenges (e.g. the UK, Germany and Czech Republic) that could not have been anticipated in the original research proposal submitted in the Fall of 2006. To not thoroughly analyse the Lisbon process - in terms of applying the same methodological tools and analysis - would be tantamount to providing a partial analysis of the EU experience with direct democracy.