José Manuel Barroso was 'elected' as President of the European Commission for a second term, on Wednesday.
It couldn't come at a better time, as the Irish start warming up for their enforced second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. What better representation of the EU than a President who hasn't been elected by the European public. Anywhere. Yes, he's not even an MEP as far as I can see.
So not only is he unelected as President by us, he can't be unelected by any public anywhere. This is a selection not an election for the most important political position in Europe. Welcome to the post-democratic era, which can only get worse under the Lisbon Treaty.
But the question is: would MEPs have been forced to vote again if they picked the wrong candidate?
Having complained that we don't get to elect our President, what would happen if we did? It would be a disaster of Eurovision proportions, with national and regional interests monopolising the voting patterns. It just highlights the nonsense of an artificial state being created against the wishes of the public.
Daniel Hannan put it well in his recent article for the Telegraph:
It cannot be stressed too often that democracy requires a demos: a unit with which we identify when we use the word “we”. Take away the demos and you’re left only with the kratos: the power of a system that must compel by force of law what it dare not ask in the name of civic patriotiosm.
No, the solution is to return power to the units with which voters feel genuine identification, namely the national parliaments.
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7 comments:
Barroso was nominated by the heads of state or government and approved by the European Parliament, according to the rules of the Treaty of Nice (which will remain in force if Libertas' No campaign succeeds).
The Commission is less than a government, but in how many EU member states is the head of government directly elected by popular vote?
But the head of the government is usually an elected politician where not already directly elected by the public. In Britain there would be uproar if MPs tried to select a non-MP to be Prime Minister.
It is a real democratic deficit when the head of state isn't directly chosen by the public in some way.
Libertas Insider,
The pre-democratic European Union is a confederation of states, not a state in itself, partly because of nationalists' resistance with regard to EU level democracy.
But the EU is trying to make itself a state with the Lisbon Treaty, and it is already more than a simple confederation given the amount of power it has.
We are effectively dismantling the European democracies and replacing them with a distant bureaucracy. It's crazy.
If we don't demand proper democracy now, what hope do we have that there will be any democracy in the future in the EU?
Libertas insider,
The Treaty of Lisbon introduces a measure of progress with regard to the functioning and the democratic legitimacy of the European Union.
Under the Lisbon Treaty, most of the areas the Commission is responsible for will be scrutinised by the directly elected European Parliament.
José Manuel Barroso was nominated by 27 national heads of state or government (with democratic accountability at the national level), he was the candidate of the European People's Party, which became the largest parliamentary group, and he has been approved by the directly elected European Parliament.
How many heads of government are directly elected?
The European Union remains a confederation of states under the Lisbon Treaty.
That said, the EU is still far from a democratic federation, based on its citizens, although representative democracy is fine by me.
For the future, beyond the Lisbon Treaty:
European level challenges require European level democracy: a unitary foreign policy, a real politically accountable government and a parliament competent in all fields of EU action. Therefore, the EU is still a pre-democratic organisation.
Yup, I can't disagree with any of that.
However, the question is whether this is what the people of Europe actually want. The Dutch said no, the French said no and the Irish said no. They are too scared to ask the British.
The whole project needs a rethink from the ground up.
Libertas insider,
If our leaders were less myopic they would see the need for a strong and unified Europe in world affairs, and they would say so.
The citizens of the European Union would follow, in due time.
The Lisbon Treaty is, in my opinion, slightly better for the functioning of the EU and for its democratic legitimacy.
There is no better deal on offer, at this point in time, only the Treaty of Nice.
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