Why bother with an EU referendum?

[BlasterBates]

There seems to be a misconception here that commission decides how the EU is run.

The EU executive is the council of ministers. The comission simply excute the decision from the council of ministers.

For example. The Euro was an initiative from France and Germany supported by most other countries, it wasn't an initialive from some EU commissioner. But they're the bureacrats that execute the decision. It was the council of ministers that put together a rescue package for Greece and agreed all the conditions, not the EU Commision. The EU commision subsequently adminstrated the whole thing.

The Comission is equivalent to the British Civil Service, obviously Civil Servents are influential look at "Yes Minister" they can mould things to a certain extent, which is what all the fuss is about.

So in the end the EU is still run by the heads of states.

The council of ministers can sack the entire EU commision at any time they choose and no commisioner gets appointed without a majority vote in the council.

[Zero Liability]

@Dodgy Agent, I agree with you on UKIP. I appreciate their role in acting as political competition to the Tories, forcing them more rightwards economically, and I hope they keep the pressure on them to this end, as well as offering a referendum. As a party, however, it is politics as usual. I do like particular individuals, like Farage, William Dartmouth, Godfrey Bloom (formerly of the party) etc., however, particularly for making the EU stiffs look like the twats that they are, especially the abominable van Rompuy, Barroso, Verhofstadt and Juncker, who I would not grace with so much as a drop of urine if they were on fire.

As for the Tories, this won't go down too well. Although it does indicate that they acknowledge when their policies go badly, Labour will pounce on this. I am hoping the Tories sustain enough political capital to beat Labour in the next election and perhaps enter a coalition with UKIP, dropping the rather useless Lib-Dems, who have proven themselves to be serial liars, and putting an end to policies purely intended to win them the next election, so the economy can start a real recovery and re-adjustment. The Tory desire to merge NI/income tax is a positive, if they stick to it and lower taxes/spending/borrowing, something which to date they have not really done. Still, the last thing I'd want is to see Labour come in and mess it all up again, with their incompetent twit "leaders" (the two Eds.)

[DodgyAgent]

There seems to be a misconception here that commission decides how the EU is run.

The EU executive is the council of ministers. The comission simply excute the decision from the council of ministers.

For example. The Euro was an initiative from France and Germany supported by most other countries, it wasn't an initialive from some EU commissioner. But they're the bureacrats that execute the decision. It was the council of ministers that put together a rescue package for Greece and agreed all the conditions, not the EU Commision. The EU commision subsequently adminstrated the whole thing.

The Comission is equivalent to the British Civil Service, obviously Civil Servents are influential look at "Yes Minister" they can mould things to a certain extent, which is what all the fuss is about.

So in the end the EU is still run by the heads of states.

The council of ministers can sack the entire EU commision at any time they choose and no commisioner gets appointed without a majority vote in the council.

What democratic mandate does the council of ministers have?