EU democracy

[BlasterBates]

But the Commission aren't judges, they're policy setters and an unelected executive. It's the Commission that holds and wields the actual power in the EU.

European democracy is no more valid than the UK one, it's all about corruption, graft and a total lack of accountability, you would have to be pretty naive to believe democracy actually exists to any meaningful extent.

Actually that isn't true. It's the council of ministers that wield the power not the commission. The commissioners can draw up proposals and do at the request of individual governments. Perhaps you remember the that there was going to be a rule about Olive Oil containers, and this was supposedly dreamt up by a commissioner, but actually it was a request by the Italian govenment on behalf of the Italian Olive Oil industry, so one of the commissioners drew up a proposal as requested and the council of ministers threw it in the bin because no-one apart from the Italians thought it was a good idea.

Basically the commissioners are appointed by the heads of state but the European Parliament can accept or reject.

If he wants to Cameron can block an appointment. They have to find commissioners they can all agree on.

The council of ministers rule the roost as it were, the commission are the paper pushers, sure one or two might try to push an idea but if a head of state throws in his veto it's no deal.

[darmstadt]

In action:

The neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), won 300,000 votes, one percent of the total, and so wins its first seat in the 751-member European parliament.

The far-right party profited from a reform of Germany's electoral system, which removed a three percent threshold to gain seats.

And the removal of the three-percent hurdle also meant that the Animal Protection Party and a spoof party called Die Partei are set to win a seat each.

Die Partei’s leader Martin Sonneborn said: "I will spend the next four weeks in intensive preparation for my resignation."

The former editor of satirical magazine Titanic said his party follow a rotation principle. "We will try to resign once a month, so that we can smuggle 60 party members through the EU Parliament," he said. "So we'll be milking the EU like a small, southern European country."