1.What role does the Commission play in the legislative process of the European Union? To whom is it accountable?

2.Read Case C-376/98 Germany v Parliament and Council EU:C:2000:544. What light does that case shed on the importance of the legal basis of a Union act?

3.Article 10(2) TEU provides as follows:

'Citizens are directly represented at Union level in the European Parliament.

Member States are represented in the European Council by their Heads of State or Government and in the Council by their governments, themselves democratically accountable either to their national Parliaments, or to their citizens.'

To what extent, if at all, do you think that provision is adequate to refute suggestions that the EU suffers from a democratic deficit? Are there any other features of the Treaties that help to serve that purpose?