Its A Year Long Pantomime Season In The EU. Always Has Been Always Will Be
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen was elected by the MEPs in the European Parliament, however, her name was the only name on the ballot paper and she only secured 51% of the votes.
Not exactly democratic so far is it!
But now we get into “Alice in Wonderland” type weird stuff. The other 27 Commissioners were proposed by national governments and selected by (wait for it!) the President of the European Commission.
Each unelected commissioner has a specific policy area in which to create laws but does this with zero mandate from and zero accountability to the 513.5 million people that live in the European Union zone.
To say that some of these unelected Commissioners have rather dodgy backgrounds/conflicts of interest is an understatement.
https://corporateeurope.org/.../new-commission-shadows...
As if this wasn’t bad enough the 751 MEPs (laughingly called a Parliament), who are elected by the 513.5 million people that live in the European Union zone do not formally possess legislative initiative (they have no right to propose legislation) which is the sole prerogative of the European Commission.
As such big business and landed interests have a bigger impact on European legislation than the folks who live in Europe. Have a read at
to get an idea of how much is spent lobbying European Commissioners. For example, Nestle spent €499,999 lobbying the European Commission in the period between 1 January 2018 and 1 December 2018. That bought them 18 meetings and God knows how much influence. They wouldn’t spend that much money unless they were getting something for it.
The EU-Mercosur (South American) trade deal (beef for cars) was signed in the face of vociferous opposition by environmental groups across the World. Do you have to wonder how much of the €2,737,500 spent by Volkswagen lobbying the Commission in the period 1 January 2017 to 1 December 2017 (most recent figures) was spent greasing Commissioners’ palms?
The arrogance and unaccountability of the European Commissioners were epitomised by the outgoing EU Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström when talking about the terrifying ‘Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)’. She said, “I DO NOT TAKE MY MANDATE FROM THE EUROPEAN PEOPLE.” Why? Because she was unelected and was unaccountable?
With just eight words she exposed everything that’s wrong with the deal, and why it needs to be defeated
As Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström occupied a powerful position in the apparatus of the EU. She headed up the trade directorate of the European Commission, the post previously given to Peter Mandelson when he was forced to quit front line politics in the UK. This puts her in charge of trade and investment policy for all the then 28 EU member states, and it is her officials that were trying to finalise the TTIP deal with the USA.
She was challenged over the huge opposition to TTIP across Europe. In the year, before the UK had the Referendum where we voted to leave the EU as a record three and a quarter million European citizens had signed a petition against it. Thousands of meetings and protests have been held across all 28 EU member states, including a spectacular 250,000-strong demonstration in Berlin. Malmström acknowledged that a trade deal has never inspired such passionate and widespread opposition. Yet when asked about the trade commissioner on how she could continue her persistent promotion of the deal in the face of such massive public opposition, her response came back icy cold:
“I do not take my mandate from the European people.”
So who did Cecilia Malmström take her mandate from? Officially, EU commissioners are supposed to follow the elected governments of Europe. Yet the European Commission were carrying on the TTIP negotiations behind closed doors without the proper involvement European governments, let alone MPs or members of the public. British civil servants have admitted to us that they have been kept in the dark throughout the TTIP talks and that this makes their job impossible.
Then it became very interesting and very clear where she was getting her mandate from. In reality, as a report from War on Want has revealed, Malmström received her orders directly from the corporate lobbyists that swarm around Brussels. The European Commission makes no secret of the fact that it takes its steer from industry lobbies such as BusinessEurope and the European Services Forum, much as a secretary takes down dictation. It’s no wonder that the TTIP negotiations were set to serve corporate interests rather than public needs.
We were asked whether we wish to remain subject to the institutions of the European Union, including the unelected Commission. As the people of Greece have learned through bitter experience, those institutions will not tolerate any reform or deviation from their blueprint of permanent austerity and corporate rule. TTIP offered a glimpse of the nightmare that the European Commission had in store for each one of us in the UK. Cecilia Malmström has shown the contempt with which she and her fellow commissioners view the European people of which I am one. As such I am glad my small little cross did grave damage to the EU project, I am proud that this little Englander saw the EU for what it really is. I am proud that this little Englanders cross has caused so much trouble in the EU and his little cross was, in fact, a very large nail in what will be the coffin of the EU, because as you can see the EU is just one big corrupt pantomime played out every day in what is now 27 countries in Europe.
