Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
Deluded. The "democratically elected parliament" is a sham as it represents 28 countries of significant cultural, political and historic differences. The process of electing this gravy train may follow conventional democratic lines, but there is nothing democratic about the ganging up, the groupings and the sheer intent to federalise the EU when none of the public want anything like that.
As for the Council, there is nothing democratic (nor undemocratic) about it. The members are the political leaders of the 28 countries. These are appointments to the Council, not elected to the Council; of course I have no objection to the Council - it needs to be there; but it doesn't fall into the "democratic" category. In the UK we don't elect a PM.
Perversely, it was better when there was no EU parliament - just the Commission (they were turds then) and the Council or whatever it was called then.
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To call someone who someone deluded just because they don't agree with you is a somewhat absolutist position.
So cultural differences negate the fact that the representatives that were elected by the population and is therefore undemocratic? What level of cultural, political of historical granularity is democratic? Is, for example, Belgium as a nation democratic when there are clear historical and cultural differences between Wallonia and Flanders? How about Germany that was federalised in 1871? How about the UK in 1707? in Does devolution in the UK make this country more or less democratic?
On ganging up, does the party political system in any governmental system result in the same thing? Do we vote for a representative or a party? If we vote for a party, then 'ganging up' occurs in any system.
In terms of the council, the heads of state are democratically and directly elected in France, Poland, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovania, Lithuania and Cyprus. The heads of state for Germany and Italy are voted by their relevant Parliaments. It's a pretty good sample to be fair. To say the Council is undemocratic because of how nations appoint their heads of state states that systems where the head of state is appointed are equally undemocratic and this would include the UK
---------- Post added at 21:32 ---------- Previous post was at 21:29 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre
Only come across as patronising as he’s trying to educate a blissfully ignorant person.
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Just asking a question about a perception of how the EU works as it was a surprise to me that the Commission did things that go against how I understand in terms of the relationship between the Commission, Parliament and Council