My eye is drawn to an exchange in the Financial Times (you can read it here).
The debate about subsidiarity in the article and the response is very interesting, but it speaks for itself and I will not repeat it. The point about the consultation, though, is also important: the article claims it produced 117 replies. Now, I don’t know whether 117 is a lot or a little – much will depend on the extent of the impact of the proposal and on some issues, there might be only a very few stakeholders affected at all – but the implication is that in this case it is not very many.
To generate more interest in European proposals, or rather to ensure that whatever interest lies latent can actually be expressed, depends principally on the media. The European Commission has its routines of openness to make the information available (and there may well be some improvements here too), but modern life depends on the media to fill the gap between politics and the public. Journalists might look closer home in apportioning blame.