So they are not elected? Right? Therefore they are not accountable to the public.
Many important EU figures have been elected repeatedly for national parliaments, as national ministers or for leadership positions in major national political parties, and only after that got an EU job.
I think it's by design: The jobs are put together as a nationally/politically balanced team, picked from from a large set of candidates who have generally been accepted by national voters over a period of time.
If you like to argue over technicalities, we can do that.
There are dictators elsewhere, should I have one at home too?
In my book an elected official is someone who was voted in office. If you are not elected then you are appointed. If you are appointed you do not need to be accountable because the people cannot revoke your mandate nor can they vote you out.
To me it seems inconceivable that someone who was appointed can decide to bring forward such a law and not have to defend it.
However it's not O.K. to go around claim that those people are appointees of 3rd parties and are agents of companies and rule with impunity and the EU citizens can't do anything about it. It's a misrepresentation of the reality.
It's like claiming that British PM and the US president are not elected. While technically true, it misrepresent the democratic system.
The exact distribution of responsibilities of the EC and who is to lead the commission is determined through international diplomacy.
Sure, the democratically elected parliament can veto the commission. But not propose a new one.
To even start comparing it with elections for US president and British PM is disingenuous at best.
The commission is appointed by the European council (i.e. prime ministers and presidents of the member states) and approved by the parliament (your directly elected representatives).
They _should_ absolutely be held accountable in the same way we hold ministers accountable in the member states.
In a parliamentary system (ie most countries in the EU) members of parliament are elected. Parliament appoints a premier. Premier appoints ministers with parliamentary approval.
EU commissioners are nominated by the member states subject to their own laws. Typically that means they are chosen by your elected government.
If you want a directly elected commissioner that’s a matter of national politics. Your country is free to change its laws to select a commission nominee via a national vote.
I want a directly elected Commission. The same system would suffice - chosen by the elected parliament among its members.
The commission has to defend their suggestions or they won't make it through council and parliament. And if an individual commissioner is only delivering suggestions that get voted down, they're not likely to get reappointed.
Is there room for improvement? Sure. Is this specific suggestion a complete piece of trash? Sure. Will that be different if we have some kind of presidential election on the EU level? Not so sure.
Just like with the migrant quotas that Hungary and Poland are boycotting. Meanwhile, the far right gets more votes because people are fed up with this BS and naïve enough to vote for them.
Most elected position have an unrevokable mandate, unelected positions are typically easier to revoke.
> If you are appointed you do not need to be accountable
They need to be accountable to who can revoke their position, which is generally elected officials.
I am not defending the EU here, I am not well informed enough in that regard; I am just criticizing the false dycothomy of elected/appointed when electoral systems create a much bigger variance of effects.
It can and has fired the entire Commission in the past, and it must approve EU legislation.
Much more fun to subscribe to a conspiracy theory about all-powerful people behind the curtain though.
Yes; it is true that the Constitution provides for the election of electors, who will then choose the President.
But in fact, while the Electoral College makes the precise mechanism of election slightly indirect and the methods of weighting the votes byzantine, in any practical sense there's no question that the US president is elected, and not appointed.