Václav Havel European Dialogues, Prague Conference 2014
"The Citizen, Power and Democracy in Europe´s Crisis"
21.- 22. February
2nd session: Reinventing the European Project
The EU has a problem regarding its executive powers, with a growing part of the public distrusting Brussels as a self-propelling machine. It is a paradox that while the European parliament has acquired more and more power since its first elections in 1979, the participation of voters is in constant decline. That has to do with the fact that the political parties are incapable or unwilling to accept these elections as a European political contest, preferring rather to turn them into a second or third round of their own domestic elections. The public will become engaged in EU matters only if they can once again see Europe as a joint response to a great history that affects "us". Europe has exhausted its post-war narrative and needs to reinvent its project. What could it be today?
Speaker: Ivan Krastev (Vienna -- Sofia)
Discussants: Milena Vicenová (Prague), Attila Bartha (Budapest)
Chair: Tomáš Sedláček (Prague)
![](https://s2.save4k.ru/pic/qttEnCpof04/mqdefault.jpg)