THE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT AND PARTICIPATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION ENERGY POLICY

The European Union (EU) is an organization which consists of democratic states. However, paradoxically, both politicians and researchers of the European integration process notice the deficit of democracy existing in the EU and point to its negative consequences for the future of the European integration process. In search of the legitimacy of their actions, EU institutions refer to the tools of participatory democracy, which was recognized in the Lisbon Treaty as a complement to a representative democracy underlying the functioning of the European Union. Participation is more and more often applied in the shaping of EU policies. However, an increased interest of citizens in the participation in the designing of EU policies is noticeable only in some areas of functioning of the EU. These matters include decisions in the sphere of energy policy. This article attempts to present the reasons for this situation. The attention is focused, on the one hand, on the problem of the democratic deficit in the European Union as well as on the ways of gaining democratic legitimacy by EU institutions, on the other hand, on the interest of European citizens in participation in shaping the EU's energy policy.