Civic competence and the challenge to EU polity-building

This article argues for the institutionalization of European 'civic competence': the institutional capacity of European citizens qua social equals to be actively engaged in the governance of the EU. It claims that a novel approach is needed to bridge the institutional and sociopsychological aspects of the EU's democratic pathology through the construction of a multi-level civic space to enhance the governing capacity of European citizens, whilst creating a particular normative order for an input-oriented legitimacy to emerge. It is also argued that recent, managerial-type reforms failed to transform a shadowy political space into a purposeful res publica : a community of free and equal citizens which is able to navigate the normative orientations of European civic society through a principled public discourse.