The EU commission is chosen and appointed by the MEPs and the European Council, it's not some arbitrary bunch of people, it's like complaining that we don't directly elect civil servants.
I bet they even have experts in certain fields!
Do you honestly know how it works? Let em explain it to you!
So, the European Parliament is made up of 751 seats from member states. The EPP is the largest party (European Peoples Party, no UK influence) with 251 seats and PES 2nd largest (Party of European Socialists, 20 UK MEPs) with 190 seats. They together dwarf the rest of the parties collectively.
The EPP contains parties from every Member state but NOT the UK. The PES does however contain some Labour (20). Between them they have ruled as a grand coalition for over 20 years. They have then formed an even larger coalition with the ALDE (Alliance Liberals and Democrats for Europe) to form 475 of the 751 seats. The UK has next to no influence in this coalition due to the fact we appoint a wide range of MEP's to represent us (Labour on 20 is the only influence we have)
The EU commissions has 28 seats for each member state. There job is to propose new legislation and to stay neutral. They have been elected by parliament, which has a majority coalition! Each member is effectively aligned to an EU party. The EPP (European Peoples Party) have 14 of the seats. 8 are taken by PES (Party of European Socialists) and 5 more by the ALDE (Alliance Liberals and Democrats for Europe) The AECR (Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists) holds 1.
This commission is the one that proposes laws and legislation. In turn the parliament approves them.
There is no direct way or possibility for us to affect change in Europe due to our minute standing within the 3 main parties in coalition. We would have some in the EPP (European Peoples Party) but are not allowed due to the fact we are not affiliated!
So the only way to affect change, however small, is to vote Labour in the European elections.
Remembering that it still isn't the MEP's that propose law but the commission, who collectively voted for the people they want in those positions.
This is not democracy and was exactly the thing Tony Benn talked about.
Even if we voted heavily and all for the same party, we still wouldn't hold much sway due to us not being allowed within the largest party the EPP. The UK has one of the poorest turnouts in the EU elections. Maybe its because deep down we really don't care about the EU and its goals?!
The EC (European Council) is made up of the heads of state of all the nations and our PM is the representative for the UK.The EC has no legislative power, which is why the "deal" Mr Cameron has struck is not binding and not able to stand up as he has no way of enforcing this through.
The political persuasion across the continent is much different than ours and always has been. We are essentially having the authoritarian values imposed upon us.
As you can see, we need to be fully IN the EU (Euro, Member State et al or LEAVE) to actually affect some reform within in it. And that is why i am VOTING LEAVE.
