You do realise that, don't you?
You do realise that, don't you?
As a european citizen, I really wonder what allows you to speak in my name. How arrogant can you get?
Could be that some of the people in here are fine with a "Parliament" that is not really a parliament and that they are fine with the unelected European Commission taking decisions that affect us all, but that has nothing to do with "arrogance", it's just them wanting to live under a non-democratic regime.
And facts speak for themselves, the technocrats in Brussels do not represent anyone because it was not the people of the EU who have put them there. Some of you may agree with their fiat decisions, but that is not "representation", it's just "sharing of interests".
The commission is appointed by the member states, which are all, supposedly, democratically elected (and I only make this caveat because Hungary exists). There's nothing "non-democratic" about it.
> And facts speak for themselves, the technocrats in Brussels do not represent anyone because it was not the people of the EU who have put them there. Some of you may agree with their fiat decisions, but that is not "representation", it's just "sharing of interests".
Please, enlighten me how it was not the people of the EU who put them there. I'll wait.
Yes, that's what they say, if that's "democracy" then we certainly have a different understanding of it.
> Please, enlighten me how it was not the people of the EU who put them there.
Take 8 out of 10 people (and I'm being generous here) off the street and ask them what party they represents them in the European "Parliament" (which is not really a parliament, the same way as the Democratic Republic of Korea is not all that democratic), they won't be able to tell you (I certainly won't be able). As per the European Commission, asking them that would be futile, see my point above.
More generally speaking, this policy of putting one's head in the sand and shouting "I can't hear you! This is a democracy! The European Commission actually represents the will of the European people! Saying otherwise is vile talk!" when the European electorate starts noticing facts for what they are wont' really help this "European" project going forward, but that's the bed that they've decided to sleep in so it's up to the technocrats in Brussels now.
So your argument for it being undemocratic is that randos don't care enough to understand who represents them in the EU?
Also if we are talking democracy and representation- it’s quite obvious you are mistaken. We have the European Parliament elections so… you know democratically elected representatives.
Feel free to share you view on democracy but it will be in conflict with that the real definition of word is given your comment.
It's not perfect, but it's the best we've come up with so far.
The predictions of all the bad things that'd happen on leaving were all incorrect. There was no 800k job losses, closed airspaces, trade wars etc.
Edit: forgot to mention this. Someone in my family has a vehicle in Ireland and in NI, we sort of live between the two countries, pre-brexit that was completely fine as their drivers licence was european so there was no issues, but post-brexit they cannot get insured in Ireland due to insurance companies refusing to give insurance to someone with a non-EU licence.
I have no say in how Google, for example, does their business. I'm way too poor for that. I'd need literal billions of stock to get Satya Nadella's phone number =)
It’s literally malicious compliance.
All the GDPR is asking is: "if you want to use some PII, you have (1) to ask consent (2) to accept user decision"
Others implementations may have included: respecting "Do Not Track" signal implemented in browser or just... not using PII at first to sell personal datas to advertiser to make more money than selling untargeted ads (so no popup needed)!
I find it very useful on firefox for android, since those buttons are often tiny.
If the EU Commission were influenced by voters, their priorities would follow what people say they care about in the EU's own opinion polls:
https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/3218
"Europeans tend to think that the most important issues facing their region at the moment are the cost of living (31%), the economic situation and unemployment (26%), and health (26%)."
No surprises there. People are feeling poor. They want more jobs and more money. A normal democratic government response would be trying to woo companies to Europe to create jobs, train locals and create economic success. It would also be lowering taxes and encouraging the creation of local startups in any way possible. That's a standard recipe that's been used many times throughout the world in response to economic discontent. But the EU isn't a normal democratic government so it spends its time on fiddling with iOS, something that doesn't even show up on polls at all because nobody cares.
It's for this kind of reason that French voters are likely to send the RN to the European Parliament in large numbers in the next election, mirroring the same pattern seen all over Europe:
https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/france/
The RN is an explicitly Eurosceptic party whose only specific policy on the EU is to oppose it. Sending it to Brussels will change nothing because the European Parliament doesn't matter, but it does send a strong message of discontentment and a desire to use whatever meagre powers the Parliament has to slow the Commission down.
Replace "EU commissioner" with "government minister" and you've just described the UK, where we also don't elect the people who decide things (the cabinet).