4 ms·

At least she's elected by the people of Europe. No, sorry, I got that wrong. As with all the other commissioners, the only ones able to initiate legislation aff

At least she's elected by the people of Europe. No, sorry, I got that wrong. As with all the other commissioners, the only ones able to initiate legislation affecting everyone in the EU, she's appointed by an elite clique who know how to deal with recalcitrant folk in Denmark, France and Ireland whose majority vote is ignored. As someone remarked ' We have no power to sack them. They don't have to account for their actions. We can't elect them but we can download a poster picture of them.'

mikl 7y ago
Yeah, all the power in EU is vested within unelected officials. Their so-called parliament is a farce to give EU a veneer of democracy.
M2Ys4U 7y ago
The European Commission is accountable to the directly-elected European Parliament. Parliament will hold hearings over the next month to scrutinise the Commissioner Designates and will then hold a vote to approve the entire college of Commissioners. And this process has, actually, resulted in unsuitable candidates being either replaced entirely or portfolios being redistributed in the past (including the last time around in 2014). Parliament can also sack the Commission at any time if it so desires. That last happened to the Santer Commission in 1999.
- johannes1234321 7y ago
  In addition to the confirmation vote by the Parliament (which will be tough this time ... considering the president only had a single vote majority) they are also nominated by the national governments (each government a commissioner) thus the differences in countries are represented as well. This is more democratic legitimation than most ministers in most state governments have, where ministers are often appointed by the head of government without confirmation. (The EU commission is similar to a government and commissioners are similar to ministers in their role)
- repolfx 7y ago
  The EU Parliament is much like the Supreme Soviet. It has votes. There are elections. Things are set up such that this can only change small details around the edges in ways the elites already approve of, nothing fundamental. Look at how the head of the Commission was chosen. Remember, the entire Commission reports to one person. The sub-Commissioners are theoretically (by treaty) nominated by each country but in practice the head of the Commission controls all the appointments. As Jean-Claude Juncker openly admitted, if he didn't like an appointment he'd simply reject it. He isn't meant to have this power, but claims he does and I believe him. The EU is full of things like that. So the entire Commission reports to von der Leyen. How did this woman get the job? Nobody can tell you. The decision was made in secret. No minutes of those meetings were published. No leader justified the decision. If there was a vote at all, nobody can see which countries voted for her or why. It just ... happened. Literally the only statement I've seen about what criteria was used was, "it'd be great if this time we had a woman", which came from some EU President (there are several and I forgot which one). So I guess that must have been why she got the job. Theoretically the Parliament can pick the head of the Commission. When they picked Juncker last time around, the EU went along with it and liked to claim it was getting more democratic as a result. But this time, when MEPs committed the hopelessly un-woke crime of nominating a man, their nomination was ignored. In true Soviet style, the EU Parliament got a vote ... but because MEPs didn't want the terminally incompetent von der Leyen, it had to be fixed. No problem - MEPs were presented with a vote in which von der Leyen was the only candidate they could vote for! Despite her being literally the only candidate on the voting paper, so many abstained from this farce she still got the lowest number of votes in history. So that's the EU. There are votes, there are politicians, there's a Parliament. Just that none of them matter.
sprash 7y ago
You forget to mention that the head of the commission "Ursula v.d. Leyen" never was a candidate. The candidate that campaigned for election called "Manfred Weber" suddenly stepped down right after the election and "Ursula" was installed. This is the most blatant anti-democratic thing I've ever seen. But it gets worse: Ursula v.d. Leyen has a history of trying to implement countrywide internet cencorship in Germany (and is since called "Zensursula"). And could only be stopped because of a gigantic rise of the Pirate Party (now defunct) to levels that became dangerous to the establishment.
- ploika 7y ago
  That's misleading. It wasn't a bait-and-switch. In fine EU tradition there was long drawn-out horse-trading and compromise and settlement on a candidate tolerable enough to be accepted by 28 different countries and the European Parliament. Enough country leaders felt strongly enough that they couldn't accept Weber that they didn't endorse him. The Spitzenkandidat system isn't law per se - it's a (very new) convention mostly being pushed by the European Parliament. The European Council (that is, the presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of each EU country) has always had to give or withhold an endorsement to whoever the European Parliament proposed to lead the European Commission.
  - sprash 7y ago
    The point is if people knew that they would get v.d. Leyen they never would have voted for EVP. The voter has apparently zero control over who gets the most powerful position in the EU. Note that commissioners not only have exectuive power but also legistlive power. Hence the EU is inherently undemocratic, a blatant power grap by the elites that needs to be abolished entirely ASAP.
skelet 7y ago
Do you get to elect your defense or sports minister in your country?
- L0stRegulator 7y ago
  In most EU countries: Yes. They are elected members of the Parliament who are assigned a portfolio by the prime minister. To be clear: someone elected them, in the example of Ireland a jurisdiction like Kerry would elect a number of parliament members and the prime minister could select any elected members from their party to form the cabinet.
  - skelet 7y ago
    she's an elected member of the Denmark parliament.

mikl 7y ago

Yeah, all the power in EU is vested within unelected officials. Their so-called parliament is a farce to give EU a veneer of democracy.

M2Ys4U 7y ago

The European Commission is accountable to the directly-elected European Parliament. Parliament will hold hearings over the next month to scrutinise the Commissioner Designates and will then hold a vote to approve the entire college of Commissioners. And this process has, actually, resulted in unsuitable candidates being either replaced entirely or portfolios being redistributed in the past (including the last time around in 2014). Parliament can also sack the Commission at any time if it so desires. That last happened to the Santer Commission in 1999.

johannes1234321 7y ago
In addition to the confirmation vote by the Parliament (which will be tough this time ... considering the president only had a single vote majority) they are also nominated by the national governments (each government a commissioner) thus the differences in countries are represented as well. This is more democratic legitimation than most ministers in most state governments have, where ministers are often appointed by the head of government without confirmation. (The EU commission is similar to a government and commissioners are similar to ministers in their role)
repolfx 7y ago
The EU Parliament is much like the Supreme Soviet. It has votes. There are elections. Things are set up such that this can only change small details around the edges in ways the elites already approve of, nothing fundamental. Look at how the head of the Commission was chosen. Remember, the entire Commission reports to one person. The sub-Commissioners are theoretically (by treaty) nominated by each country but in practice the head of the Commission controls all the appointments. As Jean-Claude Juncker openly admitted, if he didn't like an appointment he'd simply reject it. He isn't meant to have this power, but claims he does and I believe him. The EU is full of things like that. So the entire Commission reports to von der Leyen. How did this woman get the job? Nobody can tell you. The decision was made in secret. No minutes of those meetings were published. No leader justified the decision. If there was a vote at all, nobody can see which countries voted for her or why. It just ... happened. Literally the only statement I've seen about what criteria was used was, "it'd be great if this time we had a woman", which came from some EU President (there are several and I forgot which one). So I guess that must have been why she got the job. Theoretically the Parliament can pick the head of the Commission. When they picked Juncker last time around, the EU went along with it and liked to claim it was getting more democratic as a result. But this time, when MEPs committed the hopelessly un-woke crime of nominating a man, their nomination was ignored. In true Soviet style, the EU Parliament got a vote ... but because MEPs didn't want the terminally incompetent von der Leyen, it had to be fixed. No problem - MEPs were presented with a vote in which von der Leyen was the only candidate they could vote for! Despite her being literally the only candidate on the voting paper, so many abstained from this farce she still got the lowest number of votes in history. So that's the EU. There are votes, there are politicians, there's a Parliament. Just that none of them matter.

sprash 7y ago

You forget to mention that the head of the commission "Ursula v.d. Leyen" never was a candidate. The candidate that campaigned for election called "Manfred Weber" suddenly stepped down right after the election and "Ursula" was installed. This is the most blatant anti-democratic thing I've ever seen. But it gets worse: Ursula v.d. Leyen has a history of trying to implement countrywide internet cencorship in Germany (and is since called "Zensursula"). And could only be stopped because of a gigantic rise of the Pirate Party (now defunct) to levels that became dangerous to the establishment.

ploika 7y ago
That's misleading. It wasn't a bait-and-switch. In fine EU tradition there was long drawn-out horse-trading and compromise and settlement on a candidate tolerable enough to be accepted by 28 different countries and the European Parliament. Enough country leaders felt strongly enough that they couldn't accept Weber that they didn't endorse him. The Spitzenkandidat system isn't law per se - it's a (very new) convention mostly being pushed by the European Parliament. The European Council (that is, the presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of each EU country) has always had to give or withhold an endorsement to whoever the European Parliament proposed to lead the European Commission.
- sprash 7y ago
  The point is if people knew that they would get v.d. Leyen they never would have voted for EVP. The voter has apparently zero control over who gets the most powerful position in the EU. Note that commissioners not only have exectuive power but also legistlive power. Hence the EU is inherently undemocratic, a blatant power grap by the elites that needs to be abolished entirely ASAP.

skelet 7y ago

Do you get to elect your defense or sports minister in your country?

L0stRegulator 7y ago
In most EU countries: Yes. They are elected members of the Parliament who are assigned a portfolio by the prime minister. To be clear: someone elected them, in the example of Ireland a jurisdiction like Kerry would elect a number of parliament members and the prime minister could select any elected members from their party to form the cabinet.
- skelet 7y ago
  she's an elected member of the Denmark parliament.