2019-07-03T19:13:07Z https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/slaughter-of-the-spitzenkandidaten-system-showcases-need-for-democratic-eu#comment23417 2019-07-03T19:13:07Z

<p>You are right to say “It is no secret that the EU is suffering from a democratic deficit and it is dire need of reform.” We could argue regarding the nature of these reforms but let's just consider the ‘democratic deficit', I will not harp on here about second referendums, ignoring votes, the Lisbon Treaty or the Edinburgh Agreement etc. But specifically the EU is an organisation where the Council does not allow public access, the recording of minutes or voting. In short no one can ever know what was discussed or positions taken. The same applies in the triologue process in which the Parliament is fully engaged. The Eurogroup (a body that has no legal basis at all in EU law) likewise keeps no minutes and doesn't even share its decisions publicly. THE ECB does take minutes on such things as interest rate discussions and decisions, but does not release them for 30 years. By contrast the Bank of England releases its minutes on interest rate decisions after 14 days. The head of the civil service (Martin Selmayer) is promoted from Chief of Staff for the Commission President to a Deputy Secretary General of the EU Commission then Secretary General on the same day, the Commission just ignores all complaints. Parliamentary seats are allotted by reverse proportionality. Each French MEP represents approx. 880K people, whilst each Maltese represents approx. 70K, ie a Maltese vote is worth about 12.5 times that of a French one. The appointment of committee chairs within the Parliament are supposed to be allocated by the D'Hondt system, but all anti EU parties are ruled out thereby structurally disenfranchising the tens of millions who voted for them. I could go on. But what you have essentially is a body specifically designed to avoid any form of accountability or transparency. By the way in 2014 the EP secretariat-general refused any cooperation with Transparency International as part of their study into the EU, the only EU institution to do so, and this is the body you expect to protect EU democracy ?</p>