Hacker News Reader

Comment by hsitz | Hacker News Reader

The EU is not some sort of sovereign. It's an organization staffed by bureaucrats (i.e., unelected officials) for the purpose of furthering the agreed upon goals of the member sovereign states. Comparison with U.S. is ridiculous.

View on HN

There is an EU Parliament, and it can make binding law. So it's pretty disingenuous to make it seem like the UN or WTO.

Not binding for citizens. local governments have to conform to EU laws though.

Nope. There are a few different types of EU legislation. Some have to be implemented by local governments as you say (e.g. EU directives), but some immediately become the law of the member countries after being passed in the EU. These are known as EU regulations. You can read more about the different types of EU legislation here:

http://europa.eu/eu-law/decision-making/legal-acts/index_en....

Thanks for that. I would suggest anyone who thinks an analogy of EU to U.S is appropriate review what the EU actually is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

The European Parliment doesn't have the power to propose new laws.

Nope. As much as the EU is meant to promote trade, it is also self-serving, putting the interests of a fuller union ahead of the interests of member countries. To give an example, if member countries were truly respected then the Lisbon Treaty would not have passed, as similar proposals were democratically rejected by public referendums.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com