The EU is a construct of the national elites and of the member states. The EU's democratic deficit is structural and the member states are responsible for it, but there's no other structure they could have built.

Maybe at some point someone will notice that the EU was working a lot better when it was not supposed to be democratic and only works today when it is really democratic (i.e. when the European Parliament actually is involved).

• technocratic decisions are to be taken by technocrats, and there is no reason to change. You don't get to vote on how to run a train.

• political decisions are to be brought to popular vote, as they should.

Of course, our current crop of leaders, and all too many of those arguing for democracy (and yes, I include a number of commenters here, feel free to take it as you want) argue for something that looks a lot closer to the opposite.

Abnd note that those people that voted against the EU Constitution by arguing against "this" constitution disagreed with the bits that were not subject to a vote and are still in force today.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes