With our eyes now turning towards Brussels and the upcoming launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe, attention and excitement are high. But so is the feeling of being powerless to influence EU politics among European citizens. From the perspective of EU democratic legitimacy this is becoming unsustainable. While the Conference might be the solution, it can also make things worse, considering the strength and multitude of emotional drivers there are behind powerlessness. It is imperative that the hope that the Conference inspires lives up to the scope of feelings of nostalgia and resentment, before those, once combined, turn into an explosive mix.

For those studies that have been trying to explain attitudes towards European integration, powerlessness was already a common feature behind citizens’ fatalism when it comes to EU politics for almost twenty years. Feelings of powerlessness reflect both the impossibility to get to grips with politics, to influence its course, and a feeling of strangeness vis a vis the political itself. How to influence EU politics, given the extent of multinational lobbying? How to trust EU institutions, if they are themselves powerless to counteract the forces of globalisation? Why vote, if at the end, unelected officials decide or if treaties will be changed no matter what?

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