We need a movement for democratic change

Readers of this column will know that I support the Lisbon Treaty. I believe that the European Union has to adapt to changes in Europe and to the modern world, to make itself more efficient and streamlined and to take steps to bring itself closer to ordinary folk.

Not that the treaty is perfect - far from it. I would have preferred something that better addressed the EU's democratic deficit, as envisaged in the Laeken Declaration of 2001 (which kicked off the current constitutional pro...