The head of the department shapes the agenda when it comes to bill drafting, and the head of the department (usually, obviously not in the case of Nicky Morgan!) is an MP / cabinet member.
Is that not much the same way as the civil service (who aren't elected) draft the laws which our parliment passes?
The European Commission might be a bit more than just a civil service, but unless a majority of MEPs vote for the law they have developed, it will never be enacted.
So there is always a democratic vote before laws are put into action
Ergo, it's a democracy.
It's none of those things. The civil service in this country is a separate issue that requires reform. The commission being a 'civil service' is the standard response without understanding the real extent of their power. They dictate the entire direction of legislation on an agenda that only they and the desk officials they work with are responsible for.
The European Commission has the most power in the EU, they draft the law then EU parliament ratify it, unlike in UK parliament. The Commission is unelected and there is no way to democratically remove them.
Unless Im missing something (Im not a political expert) the civil service in this country just supports the elected government, it doesnt draft laws then hand down to parliament and make political decisions of its own.
The EU Commission isnt made of present day elected leaders, it’s made politicians previously elected ‘at some point’ but no longer ie can have been since voted out in their home country. They are required specifically not to represent their original nation’s interest but represent the EU agenda, so not representing a mandate like a parliament would.
Yep you're not missing anything. They can be removed by the parliament BUT only the entire commission can be removed. Not individual members, which is a nasty trick as it means you'd have to get rid of your own nation state commissioner.
The whole thing is a farce. Even the democratically elected parliament is incredibly weak. All the nation state parties are only given extra funding if they join 'ideological groups' between cross European parties which forces everyone in to a gigantic coalition and forces compromise on everything, which means the lawmaking process is often very rushed. The simple majority voting ignores and overrides the wishes of individual member states and the laws are drafted behind closed doors alongside dubious lobbying (where only a few out of the thousands EU officials actually have to publish data about who they meet, why, what they discussed etc) . So the EU gives us:
Rights? We're then told the EU gives us 20 day yearly holidays (even though UK law gives 28, so at best it's a dodgy safety net) , that's alongside all the other nonsense that is already written in to UK law like maternity pay and minimum breaks between shifts.
Competition directives? Small businesses get pages of Health and Safety directives even if they are working within industries or using capital that are deemed low risk. And anyone who argues against it is given a slogan driven lecture on why H&S is so important....
Energy efficiency? Search the EU website and you'll find pages (deliberately written in to copious documents and not delivered clearly) of directives that are designed to make products more efficient and reduce either carbon emissions, increase input/output efficiency, etc, and yet year on year the energy usage for households driven by demand increases. An optimist would call it a futile strategy that needs an alternative and technology driven approach, a skeptic like me would say it's a deliberate agenda to drive out entry level businesses and keep a foothold for all the big businesses.
Data protection? Look up article 13. Definitely not a corporate driven agenda pursued by the european commission to undermine users and restrict their content by forcing companies like youtube to go through all user generated material to look for vaguely defined 'infringements'........
It's unfortunate that so many people on here are defending the EU. The issue is that the majority of sources you find on the web about the EU are from the EU themselves which makes it hard to find neutral info from independent sources.
