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Comment by snkzxbs | Hacker News Reader

No, the European Commission is not democratically elected and I have no reason to think they’ll pay any attention to the concerns of the public.

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I fully agree and that's why I said MEPs and not commissioners. I have never received any response from a commissioner. I have received a response from a MEP. What else can we do? Public awareness (please post this on your social media and sites) and writing to representatives is all we can do.

The commission is elected indirectly, as I'm sure you're aware.

The European Commission is elected by the parliament, as are most democratic governments on this earth. There is very few (if any?) governments out there that are directly elected. At most the head of the government is elected directly.

Commissioners are appointed by member states but need not have been subject to a public vote. The president of the commission is voted upon by the European parliament.

> The president of the commission is voted upon by the European parliament

I know that this is the wording the EU itself chooses to put there, but no. They are not "voted upon". Parliament cannot choose a EU commission president. The council (the heads of state of the member states) put forth a candidate and if the parliament says no, the council has to select a president (this time ... without the parliament needing to confirm them)

Like anything else in the EU, the executive is in full control of

1) itself

2) law in the EU (the commission is the ONLY EU institution that can make laws, and yes, the essential part of that is that the parliament IS NOT in charge of EU law. It can neither force a law through nor can the EU parliament prevent the commission from enacting a law)

Yep, sure. MEPs are in european parliament, anyway.

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