As the process of European integration has evolved, the EU’s institutional framework and normative dynamics have become increasingly complex: the lack of transparency in ever more political decisions and the politicization of rights have been widening the gap between the EU and the peoples of the member states. The Lisbon Treaty contained some wide-reaching institutional and legal innovations, which were supposed to address those issues through the inclusion of a binding rights charter, civil society involvement and subsidiarity controls through national parliaments, which together were hoped to advance a European post-national demos. Yet in the few years since its implementation, contradictory tensions between member state governments, citizens and the EU in these areas have impacted on efforts to legitimize supranational governance. In addition, the current economic crisis keeps the debate on Europe contentious, while citizen disillusionment and despair spread over the continent. This panel investigates institutional mechanisms (& failures) for citizen involvement and participatory as well as representative democracy that were designed to promote active citizenship and improve the EU’s legitimacy. It increases knowledge on this relevant challenge to the future of the political union through examinations of Court of Justice rights jurisdiction (Gjoertler), the parliamentary ‘early warning system’ (Boronska), the failure to establish an effective immigration and border policy (Maslanik) and attempts to more strongly involve organized civil society (Thiel).This panel is geographically and disciplinary diverse. The contributors stem from both sides of the Atlantic, and they research in law, political sociology, political science and international relations.