Talk is cheap. Looking forward to a EU country that will step up to the plate and do something rather than just talk.
It's as if states in the US could ignore federal law. The difference is that in US the federal government could actually send federal agents to arrest the governor and bring him for trial for breaking federal law, but in EU nothing would happen. The EU parliament might try to put sanctions on a country for not following a directive, but then again, other countries would need to agree to it. So if the issue is a hot one, not much can be done.
If an directive has been issued, it can't be ignored by the member states. If they do, they can be forced to do follow it by a European court as they act against the European treaties they signed.
The European parliament can't issue sanctions against anybody, because that's not in their power as defined in the EU treaties.
What the EU parliament can do in this case (and what do actually did here) is issue a sternly worded letter. They can also try to bring the EU Commission or the member states to do something.
But you're right in this case the EU can't do anything about Snowden. It's really just a motion calling on EU national governments.
Power in 'the EU' is wielded largely by the CoM and the Commission, the parliament is just a side show. The EU is a fundamentally technocratic, not democratic, institution, This is by design.
edit : fat fingers
Having the EU parliament vote a motion in favour of welcoming Snowden as a political refugee is great. As the article highlight it isn't binding to the EU commission or EU countries. But this could help document Snowden's in front of the ECHR.
The European Court for Human Rights does have supranational power over EU states.
This is a small step in the good direction, no need to be cynical.
I did say 'EU country' didn't I? So why do you think I believe that the EU is one homogeneous federal entity? I'm pretty well versed in EU politics and I'm kind of surprised that you could read that into that line.
> Having the EU parliament vote a motion in favour of welcoming Snowden as a political refugee is great.
Yes, but it amounts to exactly nothing without any particular country taking actual action, the EU parliament has a long history of being ignored on issues like these in spite of well meaning words their ability to exert pressure on the nation states to actually act is in this particular case quite limited. But it's a nice gesture, I'm sure Edward Snowden will appreciate it.
Hence the 'talk is cheap'.