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Comment by duedl0r | Hacker News Reader

funny argument. you think it's a horrible idea, propose a flawed way to do it, and debunk it to serve your initial idea. :)

how you do think online voting is done? you really think a simple VPN is enough?

oh, and btw.. I send my tax statement online. let's hope the russians don't have a VPN connection to Switzerland :)

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One doesn't even need a VPN -- anyone can submit a response. It's basically on the honor code.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations_en

So? It's not a vote, it's a consultation. The idea being that anyone can give their input on the matter so it doesn't matter who is responding. The voting part, if it comes to that, comes later by the European Parliament.

Note that the European Parliament can't initiate legislation[1], and the Council appears to be able to ignore Parliament's opinion.

"The European Parliament may approve or reject a legislative proposal, or propose amendments to it. The Council is not legally obliged to take account of Parliament’s opinion but in line with the case-law of the Court of Justice, it must not take a decision without having received it"

[1] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/powers-and...

Note that you quoted the special "Consultation" procedure instead of the ordinary legislative procedure where EP has more power.

According to the page, the consultation procedure "is applicable in a limited number of legislative areas, such as internal market exemptions and competition law".

There seems to be a distinct lack of evidence that the veto powers are actually used, though; the backroom deals are alive and well?

A dearth of legislative vetoes: Why the Council and Parliament have been reluctant to veto Commission legislation http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2016/10/25/a-dearth-of-leg...

Legislative Scrutiny? The Political Economy and Practice of Legislative Vetoes in the European Union https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcms.12252

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