if you can, please vote in the EU elections today—let's stop fascism in europe.
@mntmn voted, but I don't think EU elections have much of an impact. The EP mostly just rubber-stamps whatever the commission comes up with
@wolf480pl @mntmn which just proves they are both working as synchronized efficient body. Now imagine EP starts sabotaging all EC decisions, making it totally dysfunctional apparatus.
@ruff @mntmn
Which means in Poland, my vote for MEPs has:
- little impact on whether we will have EU in the future (those parties aren't strong here anyway)
- no impact on what form of EU we will have in the future (tighter vs looser integration, mutliple levels of integration for different subsets of countries, etc)
- no impact on bullshit like chat control
Heck, my vote in national elections has more impact on that than in the EP elections.
@wolf480pl @mntmn the problem is that EP elections are notorious for being neglected by people (with the reasoning you outlined above and similar), therefore the results from those elections are not correlating with overall electoral layout. Which gives lifts to various jerks and marginals to boost into the high politics.
@wolf480pl @ruff @mntmn
It does because in your national elections you elect the other, more powerful chamber of the European Parliament, the EU "Senate". EU laws are not made this way: EU Commission proposes --> EP rubberstamps. You're forgetting the 2 most powerful institutions in the EU. ;)
#WTFistheCouncil
@Veza85UE @ruff @mntmn I'm aware of the Council, and this is precisely why I said that the national elections matter more.
And I think the Council is mostly good at finding compromises and blocking bills that would disproportionately disadvantage particular member states.
Without the Council, the EU would be a shitshow.
That being said, the EP appears useless, and the EC appears opaque and corrupt.
@wolf480pl @ruff @mntmn
The burden of proof on EC corruption is on you, that's how it works.
And I have plenty of reform ideas, you just probably wouldn't like most of them.
(The absolutely ridiculous practice of 1 Commissioner per country so the Council can dump its deadweight or its opposition in the EC and treat it like an elephant cemetery comes to mind...)
@wolf480pl @ruff @mntmn
Not in the sense most of them seem to understand it, no. No offence to them, but most of the ones I've seen discourse in endless conference mode don't seem capable of running a frites stand in the real world. (Maybe there are other types, idk).
I'm an A-functional-EU-for-our-survival-in-the-21st-centruryist.
@Veza85UE
hmm ok
as for EC corruption - what I mean is that every few years we hear about some bill like link tax or chat control that EC is pushing hard despite it benefiting only some industry group at the expense of everyone else, and I don't understand why they do it.
The only explanation that comes to my mind is that said industry group influenced them in some way.
So what I'd like to know is: how did chat control happen?
@Veza85UE
(and I'm not expecting you specifically to know the answer, but I'd like to eventually find someone who knows the answer)
@wolf480pl Oh, I have no doubt lobbyists target specific Commissioners (no idea about this specific measure, tbh) , often as they know them from their previous careers on national politics/the Council. That's... not exactly the definition of corruption I was looking for. But regardless of the definition, lobbyists work with ALL the institutions and the one that's least transparent is the one with no voting roll call and no lobby register. The one that deliberates in secret. For reasons.
@Hyolobrika @mntmn @wolf480pl @ruff
Oh, there is A democratic deficit alright. I whinge about it constantly.
Just not in the institution the nationalist loons are obsessed with. It's their precious national governments who operate like a black box behind closed doors in the Council.
@wolf480pl @ruff @mntmn
The EP is part of trilogues, I for one want it there as I vote for it and I want at least one institution that represents my interests as a European.
It's funny to hear a Council fan talk about corruption, tbh. The institution that regularly feeds Putin's puppet billions of our money.
Anyway. What the Council is good at is blocking reform, blocking progress towards a less dysfunctional EU and protecting oligarchs, whether agri, telecom, road transport, carmakers, etc.
@ruff @mntmn
What I meant is EP is unable to resist any stupid stuff EC tries to pass (and EC reliably comes up with stupid stuff, see chat control, link tax, etc).
Now, EP resisting good stuff EC is trying to pass would indeed be a threat, one that could lead to destruction of the EU.
I don't know what this looks like in other countries, but in Poland, the parties that would seriously want to destroy and/or leave EU (as opposed to only pretending to want that) are hovering around 10%.