European Constitution

Atomic · 22 Aug 2006 at 15:05

When this was happening in Europe I was/am against it for one sole reason. As far as I know it calls/called for a President of the EU; but as far as am aware that President will not be elected by the citizens of the EU and I think that's wrong. I couldn't agree with the constituion, but if a President was chosen by the peoples of Europe then that would be one hurdle jumped over for me.

I'm getting to the point where I was very anti Europe to be being pro European on the basis that actually we'll all be better off if Europe gets tighter. I'm even for a United States of Europe if you want to call it that. I don't care about this argument of national identity and I think it's a terrible argument.

I do think one day a United States of Europe wil happen. Maybe not in my lifetime, but it certainly will happen.

sidthesexist · 22 Aug 2006 at 15:09

Atomic said:
but as far as am aware that President will not be elected by the citizens of the EU and I think that's wrong.

neither are half of the current EU polititions(sp)

jas72 · 22 Aug 2006 at 15:20

sidthesexist said:
neither are half of the current EU polititions(sp)

please explain that one sid?

sidthesexist · 22 Aug 2006 at 15:48

there are 2 different parliments in the EU i believe it's the comisioners that are apointed by their national goverments and not elected by the citizens of their country, thats how we ended up with neil kinnock in charge of investigating coruption in the eu and then him getting rid of a whistleblower who actually reported some of the scams that were happening

Sleepy · 22 Aug 2006 at 15:52

I'm guessing he means Commissioners who are selected by heads of government

Ex-RoNiN · 22 Aug 2006 at 15:54

sidthesexist said:
there are 2 different parliments in the EU i believe it's the comisioners that are apointed by their national goverments and not elected by the citizens of their country, thats how we ended up with neil kinnock in charge of investigating coruption in the eu and then him getting rid of a whistleblower who actually reported some of the scams that were happening

Not quite. The EU consists of different bodies, two of which are the European Parliament and the European Commission. Parliament is where the Politicians get elected into and is thus the place where the MEPs work.

The European Commission, on the other hand, has nothing to do with Politicians. The Commission is the executive body of the EU and therefore is the "action" part. It is the Commission that funds research projects, performs studies, advises the Parliament and the Council (another body - I don't know much about them), and most importantly, introduces legislation for ratification (in other words, most of the power is in the commission). People that work in the Commission are appointed rather than elected, but this is because the Commission hasn't got anything to do with "politics" and "democracy", the politicians in Parliament "decide" on the legislation proposed by the Commission. In other words, the Commission is the body where policy gets made and this can be done by experts only.

To put it in national terms, Gordon Brown staffs his cabinets and departments himself by appointment, not by election. Gordon Brown is elected though. Does this make things clearer?

jas72 · 22 Aug 2006 at 16:26

hehe go to

http://europa.eu/

All shall be explained.

It's the parliament who issue directives and the commission implements them.

The european council is made up by elected MPs from the member states.

Ie the council for health would be all the health ministers from the member states that would discuss european health policys but they only dicuss subjects that can't be dealt with at national level or require european level involvement ie bird flu mad cow disease etc. the too would have directives for the commission to implement.

The European Commission is akin to what whitehall is for the UK