the EU actually requires decisions to be taken as far down the chain as possible.
Don't make me laugh.
The French rejected a European Constitution in 2005 with a ~55% majority and the Dutch with a ~61% majority. After this rejection, the idea of a constitution was abolished in favour of passing the rejected constitution in a more subversive manner as a series of piecemeal reforms.
French ex-president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing on this matter:
“The difference between the original Constitution and the present Lisbon Treaty is one of approach, rather than content ... the proposals in the original constitutional treaty are practically unchanged. They have simply been dispersed through old treaties in the form of amendments. Why this subtle change? Above all, to head off any threat of referenda by avoiding any form of constitutional vocabulary ... But lift the lid and look in the toolbox: all the same innovative and effective tools are there, just as they were carefully crafted by the European Convention.”
[The approach] "is to keep a part of the innovations of the constitutional treaty and to split them into several texts in order to make them less visible. The most innovative dispositions would pass as simple amendments of the Maastricht and Nice treaties. The technical improvements would be gathered in an innocuous treaty. The whole would be addressed to Parliaments, which would decide with separate votes. The public opinion would therefore unknowingly adopt the dispositions that it would not accept if presented directly".
As per d'Estaing's observations on the general farce of democracy at the EU level, we find ourselves confronted with the Lisbon Treaty of 2008. A treaty which was rejected by the people of Ireland by national referendum.
You can't get more 'far down the chain' than a referendum, but what does Brussels say? "Thank you for your democratic participation, please try again".
So, we found ourselves at the polling booths again in 2009. This time it was passed thanks to copious amounts of economic scaremongering.
Don't shite on to me about how the people are democratically empowered by the EU.