Making democracy the priority in EU Economic Governance: Four theses on the foundations of the T-Dem project

The T-Dem project of Hennette, Piketty, Sacriste and Vauchez puts the spotlight on, possibly, the main shortcoming of the flurry of recent Eurozone reforms: the lack of effective democratic controls. I offer a sympathetic comment on the initiative that goes to endorse and reinforce much of its intentions. However, I also raise two criticisms as I insist on the need to disentangle democratic reforms from any substantial policy proposals and advocate strengthening accountability relations between the present institutions rather than establishing a new Parliamentary Assembly for the Eurozone.