A reader comment in the Independent
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Real European 5 hours ago
You write: "The bureaucrats in charge of the EU " Names and job titles please. Do name them. Because in reality this is who rules the EU: === 1. POLITICAL leadership of the EU === The highest political leadership of the EU is the EU Council. It consists of the Prime Ministers and Presidents of teh EU member states, namely Merkel (Germany), Tsipras (Greece), Sanchez (Spain), Costa (Portugal), Loefven (Sweden), Muscat (Malta), Pellegrini (Slovakia), Iohannis (Romania), Borisov (Bulgaria), Varadkar (Ireland), Anastasiades (Cyprus), Pjenkovic (Croatia), Orban (Hungary), , Kurz (Austria), Rasmussen (Denmark), Michel (Belgium), Rutte (Netherlands), Cerar (Slovenia), Ratas (Estonia), Bettel (Luxembourg), Sipila (Finland), Babis (Czech Republic), Morawiecki (Poland), May (United Kingdom), Kucinskis (Latvia), Macron (France), Conte (Italy) and Grybauskaite (Lithuania). Please allow this to sink in for a while, as it means the political decision making power actually rests with the member states. Each of them has 1 vote. Important issues require a unanimous vote. === 2. LEGISLATIVE decision making power === The legislative decision making power is shared by two bodies: the Council (of national ministers!) and the EU parliament. Only if both agree on the final wording of a bill, does it become law This is how the legislative decision making process of teh EU works: - Step 1: the only competences the EU has, are defined in the treaties which require a majority vote on the *parliaments* of all the member states withoute exception. Only within those areas of competence, given to it by the national parliaments, can the EU regulate. - Step 2: the EU commission then launches proposal (that's all it can do, it has no decision power) to turn treaties into practice and make sure that all member states adhere to the treaties - Step 3: when a proposal is launched, the NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS of the member states are informed first. If one third of them object to the issue being regulated by the EU and opine it should be regulated at a lower level (national, regional, local) , the proposal is stopped and sent back to the Commission that can either abandon or amend the proposal or can justify why it thinks it is best regulated at EU level before resubmitting it. If half of the national parliaments object, it's end of story for the propsal. As such, the national parliaments function as a Virtual Chamber of the EU and the EU can never regulate against the national parliaments. - Step 4: If the proposal gets past the Virtual Chamber of the national parliaments, it is passed on to the Council (of national ministers of the EU member states) and to the EU parliament who each can amend, reject or adopt the proposal. Only if both the Council (of National Ministers) and the EU Parliament agree on a final wording of the proposal, does it become law. Meaning that the legislative decision making power rests with the member states and with the EU parliament. === 3. What then are Juncker and Tusk? === Donald Tusk is the chairman of the EU Concil. He was elected by the Prime Ministers and Presidents of the member states with 27 of the 28 votes, while he only required a majority of the votes. He chairs the EU council meetings but HAS NOT VOTE on the EU council. JC Junker JC Juncker is the chairman of the EU Commission. A candidate fo rthis job requires a double majority to get elected: After the EU Parliamentary elections, each of the political groups in the EU parliament put forward their candidate - called Spitzenkandidaten. They each try to rally the support of as many MEPs as possible with public speaches etc. Eventually one candidate emerges who is backed by most MEPs. This candidate is then presented to the EU council (which consists of the Prime MInisters and Presidents of the EU member states), where he requires a qualified majority (55% of the member states representing 65% of the people) to be successful. Following a successful election in the EU Council, he then needs a majority vote of the actual number of seats in the EU Parliament..
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