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What? The European parliament is the clearest example of a democratic institution inside the EU. Commission and council have their elements of redirection, sur
by arrrg 11y ago
What? The European parliament is the clearest example of a democratic institution inside the EU.
Commission and council have their elements of redirection, sure (i.e. it’s people appointed by people who were democratically elected … though in the case of someone like Angela Merkel, herself elected by the German parliament, it’s more like people appointed by people appointed by people who were democratically elected). Even though, they are still democratic, certainly, but redirection and delegation is a problem for democratic participation.
However, the European parliament does only consist of actually elected members. It doesn’t suffer from any of the problems other EU institutions may suffer from.
You statement belies a clear misunderstanding of how EU institutions actually function. Please get off populist train and get an understanding of the actual issues involved when it comes to democracy and democratic processes inside the EU. I, for example, want the EU parliament to get much, much more power compared to other European institutions, mostly because it certainly is the single most democratic EU institutions.
(But status quo is powerful … and the EU did grow out of more traditional bilateral and multilateral international agreements and treaties. Those things have always been run by heads of governments or people appointed by heads of governments. That history is hard to shake for the EU … and that is exactly why that model of heads of governments or someone appointed by them coming together and hashing it out is still sadly such an important element of EU governance. However, with too many EU skeptics a truly democratic EU government that is truly independent from heads of governments of nation states will certainly never be possible.)
- coldtea 11y ago>What? The European parliament is the clearest example of a democratic institution inside the EU Which is not saying much. I won't get to the debate of the actual democratic quality of what we call "parliamentary democracy" and the culture of the passive once-at-4/5-years voting it encourages. Even taking that as granted and democractic (e.g. accepting the same crap we get as democracy at the national level), in the EU most of the power still resides on the bureacrats, the commission and the council. Then, even if we also sidestep the issue of the E.P. being a "fig leaf" for an undemocratic self-replicating bureaucracy, it also exhibits issues of "representation at scale", where decisions affecting the national level are taken by a parliament based thousands of miles away, whose proceedings are seldom covered by national media, with political alliances, connections and power plays, far away from the everyday life of citizens of members states, and trying to find a middle ground among tens of member states with differing economies, outlooks on politics, etc -- in which large, powerful, states, also buy more influence than their population count.
- arrrg 11y agoYou are, again, confusing the issue, throwing in council and commission to the parliament. Also, some staunch nationalism. Yuck. Disgusting.