All is well in the EU? You are kidding yourselves. Let us not pretend the EU is a happy institution.
This policy paper (Nov 2017) suggesting reforms by Yves Bertoncini, European Affairs Consultant sounds like a desperate attempt to heal a broken continent.
" ....due to size effects the members of a European Parliament limited to 751 seats cannot by nature enjoy such intense and close relations with their fellow citizens (roughly 500 million) as national MPs. These reforms do confirm, however, the EU’s constant progress to reach a democratic horizon that is still to be conquered.
What a telling final sentence.
www.institutdelors.eu/media/democraticcrisesintheeu-bertoncini-oct17.pdf?pdf=ok
"A striking political divide: not Brussels against
the citizens but citizens against citizens."
The recent intensification of criticism against “Brussels despotism” has occurred alongside an unprecedented
heightening of public debate caused by the Eurozone crisis and the refugee crisis, across the EU.
The contrast is striking between the denunciation of a “Europe”which is said to be cut off from its citizens and the incredible number of parliamentary votes and national elections which have placed European decisions at the forefront.
The debates resulting from the recent crises have in fact played a part rarely seen before in the democratic
way in which decisions are made at EU level.
The EU has admittedly become much less popular with its citizens during the Eurozone crisis, and subsequently
during the refugee crisis. The EU’s image, the trust placed in it and the direction it is taking have been assessed
to be in sharp decline among citizens in most EU Member States.
This drop in popularity, which was curbed
over the last period from 2015 to 2017, was all the more striking as it was fuelled by criticism from diametrically
opposed positions: criticism of the financial assistance granted to some Eurozone countries voiced in creditor
countries such as Germany, Finland and Slovakia, alongside criticism of austerity expressed in countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal in return for EU and IMF financial assistance. The same dynamic of diametrically
opposed criticism was revived when the refugee crisis hit, with public opinion denouncing the lack of control in
some border countries (Greece, Italy, etc.), the lack of solidarity between European countries (Germany, Sweden,
etc.), or on the contrary the solidarity organised by the EU (Poland, Hungary, etc.).
This twofold criticism is naturally harmful to the European construction, but above all it reveals “horizontal” divides between European citizens, much more than a “vertical” divide between the EU and its citizens.
Such horizontal divides have made the adoption of decisions more complex for national and European authorities; and were sometimes accompanied by the prevalence of hackneyed stereotypes (Greeks = lazy; Germans =Nazis, etc.), stereotypes which are often conveyed by the political elites as much as by the citizens.
They have resulted in the adoption of decisions based on compromises deemed to be unsatisfactory by all. Yet these
divides have reflected or continue to reflect the heterogeneous nature of the interests and perceptions of citizens of EU Member States, “united in diversity”: these are much more of a danger to the EU’s cohesion than
yet another demonstration of its democratic deficit."
The EU - Plastering over the cracks methinks.
when posters are merely responding to posts.... I do wonder sometimes how old you actually are
