In what way is Britain less democratic than the EU?
The comment is perfectly reasonable. European power is held tightly by the Commission, an unelected body comprised mostly of the ex-Ministers of Europe. Ironically it’s anti democratic since you usually need to lose an election in your home country in order to ascend to it.
The commission is the only body capable of proposing new legislation, the elected Parliament cannot propose legislation. No wonder the old joke “If the EU applied to join itself it would be turned down for not meeting the criteria”.
Good riddance from my point of view. For better or for worse. Laws need to be made as locally as possible to the people that they affect.
Source for my claims:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/25/the-european-commission
That is a rather grotesque misrepresentation, as usual.
In actual fact, the European Commission is basically just the equivalent to the appointed cabinet of ministers in a nation state, only that in its case it's not a single elected politician making those appointment, but the entire council of elected heads of national member governments
jointly agree on the appointment of the commissioners and (contrary to most national cabinets) the elected European Parliament also needs to confirm every single appointment.
The ultimate control is always kept in the hands of the elected heads of national governments (via the joint European Council) and the elected European Parliament – the Commission is just the executive organ the elected heads of member states delegate the day-to-day administration to.
There has long been a reluctance on the part of the member governments to hand over some of their powers to the parliament, but the European Parliament has fought for and gained quite a bit of additional powers over the years and it keeps gaining legitimacy and political weight, so the member governments can't run roughshod over it as easily as they once could – it is a very proper democratic development, really!
But there is actually no european decision which
isn't ultimately under the responsibility of elected representatives, contrary to the UK with its unelected House of Lords, its secretly meddling royalty and in more recent times a government abusing the lack of a proper constitution by disabling ever more of the oversight and accountabilities it should normally face.
That lie about "unelected european bureaucrats" ist parroted by many who just never bothered with the facts but merely seek confirmation of their pre-existing biases and prejudices.
Doesn't look like that toxic tree is bearing any delectable fruits so far, though.