(Greece's Contribution to the 1996 Intergovernmental)
B. The European Union and its Citizens
9. The most serious challenge for the European Union is that an increasing number of its citizens question the relevance of the goals and content of European integration. Regaining the support of European citizens for the integration process and its institutions is an indispensable condition for overcoming the crisis, thus ensuring the European Union's actual legitimisation. For Greece, the European citizens' active participation in the integration effort constitutes the basis of the E.U's legitimisation, its «raison d'etre». Without the active support of European citizens and societies, the European Union will be unable to achieve its goals.
10. To regain the support of its citizens and national societies at large, the European Union should take measures that will provide a substantial contribution towards solving their problems and allow citizens to participate actively in the integration process. To this end, the revised Treaty should include provisions aiming at:
i) Strengthening and enhancing protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In this context, Greece supports the incorporation - in the revised Treaty - of a Catalogue of Human Rights or, alternatively, the Union's accession to the Convention on Human Rights.
ii) Enriching the Treaty with a catalogue of basic social rights, as provided by the European Social Charter and the Protocol on Social Policy.
iii) Including in the Treaty specific provisions prohibiting any form of discrimination and explicity condemning racism and xenophobia.
iv) Enhancing the Treaty's provisions on equality between men and women and including special actions in favour of disabled persons and other disadvantaged social groups by means of new provisions.
v) Enrichment of the Treaty's references to European citizenship, by the expansion, among others, of the catalogue of associated rights.
11. The respect of the principle of transparency should be a fundamental principle of the Union. Democratic procedures are inconceivable without transparency. In particular, democratic control cannot be exercised in the absence of systematic information regarding the sector in question. Although the principle of transparency constitutes a principle of law stemming from the law of the Union in effect, its explicit enshrinement in the new Treaty would constitute a clear step forward. In addition, increased transparency and publicity in the operation of the Union's institutions, the consolidation of the Treaties into a single text and a legislation simplified to make it easily comprehensible to the average European citizen, are likely to contribute to the Union's regaining of the lost support of its citizens and to the reduction of the distance between the latter and the Union's institutions. To the extent possible, the proceedings of EU institutions should be open to the public. Finally, the European Union should acquire legal personality.
12. In this context, the principle of subsidiarity must be made the most of, as a means of defining the manner in which E.U. competences should be applied. Subsidiarity, which constitutes a fundamental organisational principle for ensuring that decisions are taken as close as possible to the citizen, should be used as an instrument for strenghtening the role of the citizen, the local authorities and the regions within the integration process; it should not be used as a means to alter the «acquis communautaire», to renationalise Community policies, to retard the development of the Union, or as a means to expand unduly the Union's competences.
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