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Vote for what? EU Parliament doesn't make policy. Therefore the parties have no manifestos worth a damn. You can't "vote for the other guys" if you care about

Vote for what? EU Parliament doesn't make policy. Therefore the parties have no manifestos worth a damn. You can't "vote for the other guys" if you care about copyright because none of them have any real influence over the Commission which is where all the power truly lies.

IAmEveryone 9y ago
Your information is about 12 years out of date. The EU Parliament gets to amend and approve all legislation. If copyright is your main concern, you should look at the Green Party. Julia Reda, linked in this article, is a tireless advocate against copyright overreach.
- mamon 9y ago
  All the EU institutions are just a decoy. EU policy is whatever German Chancellor wants, because the whole EU runs mostly on German money. Not so long ago it was said to be French-German duopoly, but France has fallen behind economically since then. And if you don't believe me, please recall who was calling shots when the "refugee" crisis first broke. Noone gave a damn about what the Head of EU Commision, Mr. Juncker has to say, everyone was waiting for Angela Merkel to make up her mind.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - sctb 9y ago
    > Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- vsl 9y ago
  The parliament gets to amend (and extremely rarely reject), but doesn’t make the policy - only the Comission does. That’s very unlike the traditional (“real”) democracy where the parliament is fully in charge of creating laws. The principle of separation of powers is important, even crucial, for democracy. In EU, executive branch blends with the legislative.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > The principle of separation of powers is important, even crucial, for democracy. No, it's not. It's not even a feature of a number of Western representative democracies. (The UK has notably begun in recent years making some steps in the direction of a separation of powers system, but has long been described as having a fusion of powers system.) In theory, separation of powers puts a brake (but not an absolute barrier) on attempts to convert what is nominally a representative democracy to an autocracy by way of a self-coup by the unitary elected leadership, but it does so directly by making democratic accountability more complex for electors.

IAmEveryone 9y ago

Your information is about 12 years out of date. The EU Parliament gets to amend and approve all legislation. If copyright is your main concern, you should look at the Green Party. Julia Reda, linked in this article, is a tireless advocate against copyright overreach.

mamon 9y ago
All the EU institutions are just a decoy. EU policy is whatever German Chancellor wants, because the whole EU runs mostly on German money. Not so long ago it was said to be French-German duopoly, but France has fallen behind economically since then. And if you don't believe me, please recall who was calling shots when the "refugee" crisis first broke. Noone gave a damn about what the Head of EU Commision, Mr. Juncker has to say, everyone was waiting for Angela Merkel to make up her mind.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- sctb 9y ago
  > Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
vsl 9y ago
The parliament gets to amend (and extremely rarely reject), but doesn’t make the policy - only the Comission does. That’s very unlike the traditional (“real”) democracy where the parliament is fully in charge of creating laws. The principle of separation of powers is important, even crucial, for democracy. In EU, executive branch blends with the legislative.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > The principle of separation of powers is important, even crucial, for democracy. No, it's not. It's not even a feature of a number of Western representative democracies. (The UK has notably begun in recent years making some steps in the direction of a separation of powers system, but has long been described as having a fusion of powers system.) In theory, separation of powers puts a brake (but not an absolute barrier) on attempts to convert what is nominally a representative democracy to an autocracy by way of a self-coup by the unitary elected leadership, but it does so directly by making democratic accountability more complex for electors.