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Non-EU readers should bear in mind that the presidency of the EU is much much weaker than that of, say, the US. It's rotated around the countries on a schedule,
by pmyteh 9y ago
Non-EU readers should bear in mind that the presidency of the EU is much much weaker than that of, say, the US. It's rotated around the countries on a schedule, and has mainly agenda-setting authority.
That is, countries who hold the presidency will use it to try to get movement on some issues that they care about, but it doesn't have anywhere close to enough power to get something passed which the other member states do not agree with. Real power sits with the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament in various proportions.
- ForRealsies 9y agoReal power sits with Merkel.
- wiz21c 9y agoOr Erdogan ?
- VeejayRampay 9y agoTurkey is not part of the EU yet. I don't see how exactly the power "sits with Erdoğan".
- wiz21c 9y agoErdogan controls a massive amount of refugees. Moreover, there's one or two pipelines crossing Turkey and I'm sure that helps to control things a bit too. Of course I'm no politician, I've no access to confidential information, but I'm sure he might use that to influence Europe (and there's nothing wrong with that, that's international politics as usual).
- d33 9y agoWell, I heard people say he controls the flow of the "refugees", so he gets to make some decisions.
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoHe can (and does) use that for leverage, but then, so could Italy, Spain, and Greece. I don't think he can get into the EU under threat of letting refugees through though, not while there's violations of human rights and such still going on in his country.
- allendoerfer 9y agoTurkey also won't be part of the EU. Both Merkel and her contestant for the current election stated on Sunday, that they have had enough and want to abort the negotiations about Turkey joining.
- mathw 9y agoEven if they didn't abort, recent developments in Turkey have moved them significantly further away from meeting requirements for entry .
- VeejayRampay 9y agoJust because we're hitting a bump along the road doesn't mean they won't join eventually. And I hope they do, they belong in the Union with us.
- Pica_soO 9y agoErdogan and the whole European east (Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine) expansion was always just a big part of the anti-European strategy to binge grow this polit-amobea to death. And it has worked, in so far that it has accelerated the probable demise forward by at least twenty years. Europe was always just a half hearted dream by its elites, who where not even enough into this vision, to share their power with the institutions they created. Now after the very same dream, has allowed for the life-standard growth of most of its citizens to disappear - they are in for a rude wake up with extremists devouring the corpse.
- notzorbo3 9y agoLiterally nothing you're saying makes any sense on any level. This looks more like markov-chain generated text.
- Pica_soO 9y agoWhat about over-stretching a expansionist movement as a counter strategy does not make sense? Europe has grown hard, not smart. It never evaluated what it integrated, and as a result, is more unstable then ever.
- asdfgadsfgasfdg 9y agoThere is some truth in the idea that the growth of the EU was intended to slow down the process of federalization. The UK pushed hard for the growth in the 2000's and was also a proponent of Turkey joining for these reasons.
- allendoerfer 9y ago> Now after the very same dream, has allowed for the life-standard growth of most of its citizens to disappear - they are in for a rude wake up with extremists devouring the corpse. What are you even talking about? We just had an Australian guest, who drove freely through Europe using one currency. These states previously fought two world wars against each other.
- 9y ago
- nthcolumn 9y agoNot part or ever will be it seems. Their application officially just recently being moved to the out tray.
- icebraining 9y agoTrue. One wonders what Estonia, or its government, has to gain from this, though.
- andy_ppp 9y agoIt's the same thing all autocrats want which is to consolidate their power while protecting the little people from themselves. I can see where they are coming from though; I'm pretty sure the investigations of Internet usage that turn up on politicians desks contain pretty disconcerting information about the human condition.
- icebraining 9y agoThis seems to be focused on copyright, not "protecting the little people from themselves." I find a financial reason more likely to be behind this push.
- andy_ppp 9y agoYes after finding and reading the document (TFA was hosed) I have totally misunderstood it's content; maybe a better headline including the word copyright would help.
- matt4077 9y agoThank you for admitting the misunderstanding. It's really dangerous to go around calling democratically elected governments "autocratic". These people really do try, and there's really no indication that any government except maybe Hungary is bent on perpetuating their power. Calling them names just removes any incentives for anybody to do well: Why bother, if you're just going to be called an incompetent autocrat anyway?
- nthcolumn 9y agoe-Stonia has e-Residency, and various other internet-based shenanigans. You can get an e-passport, set up business, get residency, travel documents, online, I think. Just visit your local embassy with proof of id. They are selling themselves as a digital destination/economy. Russia occasionally does massive DDoS there. so ymmv. Not sure how that relates though just surprised it was them. Maybe they are leaking it because they want it nipped in the bud.
- rovek 9y agoFor this reason the article seems at least a little alarmist. It wouldn't be news that Estonian politics is delving into censorship/surveillance; tacking on "EU Presidency" just ads faux-gravitas.
- mseebach 9y agoIt's not the least alarmist. The EU Presidency is an real office that has a real function, and the leaked document literally says in the first line "From: Presidency".
- digi_owl 9y agoThere are times i wonder if politicians use EU as a "trump card". This in the sense of getting it into a EU directive and then turning around to the nation, stating as it is part of an EU directive their hands are tied...
- allendoerfer 9y agoThey definitely do that in Germany.
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoOh they could, and it might be easier since as far as I know, the general population has very little influence over who gets to sit in the EU government.
- chaudfontaine 9y agoAlso, EU presidency is not directly elected by the people.
- einrealist 9y agoThe presidency becomes powerful if there are things the Comission is interested in. For example conservative countries like Poland or Hungary could push this agenda in exchange for a more open refugee law or other things that are challenging EU law or regulations. Never underestimate that.
- lap42 9y agoSo what? It's the PRESIDENT of EU, regardless of power... It says a lot about who's in charge of EU, the globalists. That's why BREXIT occurred, that's why Trump won: to fight them.