by
N. Peter Kramer
The self-declared candidates for the European Commission Presidency, Juncker, Schulz and Verhofstadt have a nightmare indeed, but it is the European Council, the gathering of the EU memberstate leaders, that probably will choose someone other than one of the three candidates, all three veteran supporters of more power, more money and more eurocrats for a better Europe.
But the EU government leaders don’t care about a low turn-out either. Rather, they are afraid of a good result in the elections for the political parties that are not fond of the European Union. For convenience sake Europhiles often mash together anti-Euro/EU parties like Front National in France and Wilders’ party in The Netherlands with absolutely reasonable but critical of the EU parties like the British Conservatives and the Dutch Socialist Party (SP).
Is there a way to bring European politics to the people? From different perspectives is argued that more powers for national parliaments over EU-decision making could be the way forward. A report prepared at the request of the lower house of the Dutch Parliament suggested it. A leader in the weekly The Economist said: ‘If the EU is to gain democratic legitimacy, it will do so not through the European Parliament but through national parliaments. That means giving back powers to them where possible’. A new report by think tank Open Europe concludes that, ‘instead of repeating the same mistake of addressing the EP’s failure to connect with voters by increasing its powers, boosting the role of national parliaments in EU decision making would return democratic accountability closer to voters’.
Let’s see what happens. But the legitimacy of the new EP will be lower than ever. Who dares to talk about an EU democracy?
By: N. Peter Kramer
