There is no accountability because no one holds them to account and people repeat what you just wrote like gospel, including people writing for newspapers - and that has to stop.
You can pressure the EU as much as you can pressure your national government, all you need to do is put the pressure on your national government. Add your MEP on top, but the national governments are enough if you don't want to go the extra step.
So who should you be angry at? Some make believe distant evil council, or your local parties? They are the ones sending over the people who vote on these things, you can complain locally about the policies “far away”.
So I am not saying laws like these aren’t wrong, they are and it is very frustrating that wrong decisions like these might influence stuff happening in my own country, but let’s not pretend that the EU is run by aliens from some sort of Death Star. Pretending like that is the case is what makes accountability seem impossible.
but the whole circus in Brussel is a huge black box bureacracy run by politicians that no one really knows. the politicans that are sent there by local parties are usually not very well known by the local populace, and even if, their doings are not really of influence on how poeple view their local parties. heck I bet 95% of voters cannot even name 5 eu politicians in the parlament and to which local party they belong to.
and thats the power. the citizens are busy with national politics and in the meanwhile the death star aliens can do whatever they want.
and yes. its not an unsolvable problem. people could educate themselves. all the info is there. but its a very laborous job. so maybe the media is just doing it wrong?
EU Parliament is by-in-large more transparent and direct than the UK one (not sure where you're from, but I'm from the UK so that's the lens I have).
But you're absolutely right, for some reason the EU "feels" quite closed off, and it's almost entirely the medias fault. Media is driven on eyes, and the further away a thing is the more difficult it is to have eyes on it.
It takes huge issues to get international attention, natural disasters that kill hundreds in another EU country are barely mentioned on british media.
It's also very boring, so it's not surprising.
But, it's actually very easy to read the EU parliamentary, commission documents, and the documentation on how all the processes work is quite clear (even if it's a bit alien on first look because you're taught your own system and have to "unlearn" that a bit first).
I'd give it a go, it's not as intimidating as it first appears. But I fully agree that the media should do this, it's literally their job.
The truth is usually that eurosceptics have no desire to see the EU work and they will support legislature that makes the EU look untenable, stupid and bureaucratic.
I suspect this is true for other countries.
I’m going to just grab a couple from my phone but I’m sure it would be easy to dig into many others, it’s not a hidden thing really but most people don’t even check who their MEPs are let alone hold them to account on voting records:
Tim Aker, voted against subsidising farmers from volatility (a key impact for UKIP voter base and a campaign promise of UKIP: protecting British farmers) and voted for renegotiating to give Greece more capital: https://yourvotematters.eu/en/profile/ec/tim-aker
and Stuart Agnew, a prominent UKIP MEP has intentionally slowed things down with farcical no confidence resolutions https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96897/JOHN+STUART_AGN...
Please use arguments that arent fundamentally based on biases. There is definitely value in a European government, even if the way it's currently setup is very questionable, as the citizens have no realistic way to influence decisions on that level.
Please accept my humble apologies. I am not worthy of your sublime attention. I am so lucky you exist and are leading me to new heights of progress and civilization. Thank you, sir.
They only become necessary if you're using something like Google analytics, which documents every action taken.
The fact that almost all pages have to show them is another sad example how broken our current internet culture is.
Btw, you can actually delete most banners with the ublock origin annoyances filters, that makes me forget that they exist sometimes
They could stop voting for parties/MEPs that have mass surveillance and weakening of civil rights as part of their election programs and core identities. Alas a majority of European citizens doesn't seem to care.
anyway. it needs to go. and then its need to be re-implemented differenlty. no idea how. but not in this way.