European Commission Betrays Open Standards

The Council consists of the heads of government of the member nations, so it’s not really undemocratic. Appointments are also not unheard of in democracies, as are indirectly elected officials. (E.g. the German chancellor is not elected directly but by the German parliament.)

It’s true, though, that the indirections pile up and remove the officials farther from the voters. That’s generally not a good thing. (I don’t think, however, that every official should be directly elected. Indirectly elected officials are sometimes a good idea.) I don’t think it’s necessary that the president of the Comission be directly elected, but that the parliament should be given that power. That would immediately make it much more powerful and, yes, make the EU quite a bit more democratic.

Quite the contrary. It was the EU that slapped Microsoft for anti-competitive behaviour related to interoperability and open standards.

I guess some folks who stuffed ISO NBs to pass OOXML found new occupation.

More interesting would be why has it become a dirty word.