CHAPTER SEVEN FOSTERING THE EU‘S DEMOCRATIC IDENTITY THROUGH THE EUROPEAN PUBLIC SPHERE CRISTIAN NITOIU The evolution of the European Union since its creation has been intrinsically linked to ideas and principles of democracy, inscribed in its founding treaties. Internally, the European project is considered to have contributed to the enhancement and spread of democracy throughout the continent. During the last ten years, both scholars and practitioners have advanced the idea that the EU‘s deep democratic commitment has also shaped or constrained its behaviour on the world arena. Sharing its experience and promoting democracy, human rightsor multilateralism is seen as an inherent duty for the EU. However, a more detailed look at the way democracy is constructed and enacted in the EU points to the fact that European democracy departs from its internal and external goals. Not one but many diverse interpretations and narratives of what democracy is reside throughout the member states. On the one hand, diversityin terms of the images and visions of democracy constructed in the EU provides thrust to the creation of a multicultural Europe. On the other hand, the multiplicity of interpretations of democracy has given birth to many practices which at times fall short of the acceptable universal and benchmarks present in the Copenhagen criteria, and member states legitimize their undemocratic behaviour and policies by cherry picking from the menu of standards articulated in the official criteria and standards of the EU. The democratic malaise, underpinned to a large degree by the effects of the current financial crisis in countries such as Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary or Romania, points to the idea that democracy across the EU is more self-assumed in formal terms than residing in social and political practices. This chapter explores whether a coherent narrativeand practice of European democracy can be created through a European discursive space. Such a discursive space, conceptualized as the European