Power and decision making in the European Union

Or, the conspiracy against democracy
















1. The governments of different nation states make treaties with each other. Most often, this occurs without an explicit and direct mandate from the people, and without a fully-informed and lengthy period of explanation of all the details and consequences.

2. National parliaments ratify those treaties (often without a prior referendum; where there is a referendum, the full implications of a ‘yes’ vote are never spelt out)

3. The treaties hand law-making powers to supra-national institutions

4. The European Commission (unelected) has the sole power to propose new legislation, supposedly within the areas conferred on it by the Treaties

5. Proposed legislation is discussed and amended by various committees of the European Parliament and by the Council of Ministers.

6. Virtually no-one knows their MEP; hardly anyone outside the parliament truly understands the decision-making process. Only one minister from each nation state sits in the various Ministerial Council meetings; the voices of hundreds of nationally-elected and accountable MPs have been silenced; that one minister wields all the power of his nation. And the power of each nation has been truncated.

7. Even the UK only has around 8% of the voting power in the Council. The power of veto scarcely exists…which means that often the UK can be forced to accept laws on all sorts of thinks which go partly or fully against its own national interest. And even if the laws were “perfect” for the UK, effective democracy would still have been destroyed.

8. Once the laws have been finalised, national parliaments are obliged to implement or enact them; failure to do so within the specified period can result in legal actions and fines.

9. Of course, after all this, not all countries implement them fully or enforce them...

I say: Better Off Out