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The "EU" is not "greenlighting" that proposal this week. The Council of the EU will vote on their negotiation stance, which is merely one step in the legislativ
by wasmitnetzen 2y ago
The "EU" is not "greenlighting" that proposal this week. The Council of the EU will vote on their negotiation stance, which is merely one step in the legislative process, after which the Commission (which is pro-scanning) and the parliament (which is broadly against it) will get involved.
- tdsone3 2y agoExcuse my ignorance, updated the title. Seeing the discussion here, it did attract the wrong audience...
- nyten10 2y ago[flagged]
- Jensson 2y agoAnd at every stage people will talk about how horrible EU is as if this has already passed, just like last time.
- sva_ 2y agoThe fact that we have to deal with this bullshit every couple months is a pretty depressing fact on its own.
- rvnx 2y agoAdd on top of that bullshit, the new plastic caps that the EU imposed instead of doing a refundable deposit per [bottle/cap pair].
- rekoil 2y agoI'm sorry, are you talking about the plastic caps that stay attached to plastic bottles so that they are more likely to be disposed of properly rather than end up in some marine (or other nature) environment? I cannot believe you're comparing that (an effort designed to make recycling more effective, which is generally a good thing) to EU citizens entirely losing our access to privacy in the digital world.
- ffgjgf1 2y agoHow exactly do bottle caps in the EU end up in marine environments? And if they do that should be pretty easy to fix. These regulations won’t do anything to stop countries in Asia, Africa and other places from pumping their garbage into rivers and oceans… To be fair I don’t really mind the bottle caps (unlike the plastic straw ban) but it hardly accomplishes anything beautiful allowing people in the EU to feel better about themselves because they are doing their part (which is possibly actually counterproductive).
- rvnx 2y agoThe solution was an EU-wide plastic bottle deposit, this way, it pushes people to bring back intact bottles with their caps and get ~0.10 EUR back for each. And if you are too lazy to bring it back or just a person who throws away stuff carelessly, someone else will do (big sorting centers as it's a big revenue-stream, the cleaners, the homelesses, some bored students, etc).
- vidarh 2y agoI'm all for requiring bottle deposit/returns schemes. I loved the Norwegian one for example, but if you require the return of both or nothing, you will likely end up with a net reduction in returned plastic. If you were to reward returns separately, maybe. But even then you'd be more likely to ensure caps don't get lost if they stay attached.
- sunbum 2y agoBut they are, as it becomes easier to just produce one version the bottle caps attached to the bottle will spread to other countries[1] [1]- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect
- nybxwda 2y ago[flagged]
- 2y ago
- elric 2y agoI wish there was a way for EU citizens to punish the council this behaviour. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anything in place for that.
- mariusor 2y agoThere is: stop electing the people that make these decisions in positions that can land them in the EU Council.
- greatgib 2y agoI wish that we had this possibility, but here in France the bad political parties have strong regulatory barriers to prevent independent and need comers to be candidate or have a chance to be president and sometimes parlement members...
- bratwurst3000 2y agoSame here in Germany. Parties need at least 5% of the vote to get elected into Parlament. That’s 2-4 million votes every year straight into the trash
- t0bia_s 2y agoYour vote alone doesn't change anything.
- azmodeus 2y ago
- hgancy 2y agoPassing is one thing. They waste everyone's time by threatening to pass idiotic legislation every 6 months. But perhaps that is the goal so people do not investigate why the EU is getting poorer and all money goes into housing and healthcare.
- bigfudge 2y agoThe median EU citizen is not getting poorer relative to the median US citizen. Don't confuse growing income inequality with "national wealth".
- hartator 2y agoGDP per capita of EU used to be higher than the US.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mariusor 2y agoAnd then poorer countries joined the EU. I'm not an economist but I think that's how it's supposed to work.
- rsynnott 2y agoI'm not sure that's ever been true on PPP? It may have been on a nominal basis from time to time due to a weak dollar (1 EUR hit 1.60 USD or so during the financial crisis), but that's of limited interest for the average person.
- eumasssu 2y ago[dead]
- constantcrying 2y ago>And at every stage people will talk about how horrible EU is as if this has already passed, just like last time. Even the idea makes me loose all faith in the institution. How can you be okay with people as deranged as this making rules about the future of your country? "Not everyone is insane", just isn't a particularly strong point.
- ffsm8 2y agoWhen did the EU become a country though...?
- constantcrying 2y agoHow do EU rules not influence the countries which are member states?
- ffsm8 2y agoI would certainly hope they do, it'd be entirely pointless if it didn't. Doesn't change that it's not a country.
- DEADMINCE 2y agoPractically, it may as well be. Common military in practice, common currency, common laws, common courts and highest authority, common passport rules, etc.
- constantcrying 2y agoBut the rules the EU makes impact the country I live in. The EU does not need to be a country for their rules to have impacts on countries. I think this is pretty self explanatory though?
- ffsm8 2y agoThis is awkward. I think I misinterpreted your initial comment after rereading it just now. I must've been quiet dumb unless you edited it earlier. My initial comment doesn't really make sense in this context
- jiriknesl 2y agoCan't EU be terrible, just because those ideas get this far?
- InDubioProRubio 2y ago[flagged]
- ekianjo 2y agothats what happens when there is no strong (as in enforced) constitution in the first place
- nolok 2y agoThe EU is terrible because ideas are discussed and put to a vote? That's one way to view things I guess
- bigfudge 2y agoFor context for non EU people: > As the commission is the executive branch, candidates are chosen individually by the 27 national governments. Within the EU, the legitimacy of the commission is mainly drawn from the vote of approval that is required from the European Parliament, along with its power to dismiss the body. So, the part of the EU appointed by member governments is the part driving this. The EU (as often) is being used here as a scapegoat for anti-democratic policies desired by national governments.
- arlort 2y agoNot really The member states are as much a part of the EU as the parliament is. It's disingenuous to say that this is not the EU, of course it's also disingenuous to say that the EU is a monolith who wants this at all levels, but two wrongs don't make a right
- constantcrying 2y ago>The EU (as often) is being used here as a scapegoat for anti-democratic policies desired by national governments. But if the representatives are chosen by the, presumably, democratically elected governments how are they "anti-democratic". Unless representative democracies are inherently undemocratic (and therefore most European government themselves undemocratic), I fail to see how this can be described as "anti-democratic". In basically every democracy there is a way for the elected representatives to push through legislation which is unpopular or only supported by a small portion of the population. But this is an intentional feature.
- bux93 2y agoIf you read >The EU (as often) is being used here as a scapegoat for anti-democratic policies desired by national governments. as >The EU (as often) is being used here as a scapegoat for anti-democratic policies desired by democratically elected national governments. This is a perfectly fine statement. The policy is argued to be anti-democratic because of its substance, not because of how democratic the process is by which it is adopted. A measure with broad popular support can be anti-democratic, a measure only supported by a small portion of the population can be pro-democratic. It's orthogonal and if anything there is an inverse correlation.
- amarcheschi 2y agoIt is still possible to contact your EU permanent representative group via email. Op link in "what to do" section has a precompiled email which you can send to your permanent representation group. As little as it may be, I sent it to the Italian representative group, to the team that oversees telecommunications Edit if you're Italian you can find the email(s) here, scroll to trasporti e telecomunicazioni https://italiaue.esteri.it/it/chi-siamo/ https://italiaue.esteri.it/it/chi-siamo/
- t0bia_s 2y agoIt shows one common email and website doesn't work for Czechia.
- arlort 2y agoTechnically the commission came first, after this vote it'll go to parliament and then if there's a need for mediation the commission will be involved together with parliament and council