/
Brussels Blogger picked up the PES leader Poul Rasmussen demanding top jobs for European socialists:
“(W)e insist on having the post of High Representative, or if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, the European Council President. We have several excellent candidates for these positions.”
***
After the spectacular failure of the Party of European Socialists (PES) to put forward a candidate for the Commission Presidency ahead of the European Parliament elections in June 2009, we look forward to a presentation of these excellent candidates and an open selection of those the PES is going to propose to the European Council.
***
Julien Frisch offers us the following paragraph about the newly approved José Manuel Barroso:
“After he got elected today, Barroso said that he wants to work more closely with the European Parliament to make the Union a "European parliamentary democracy".”
***
Did Barroso really say that, and if he did, did he mean it?
I failed to find the quote in question, but would the anti-Europeans and Europhobics have voted for a Commission President with real democratic ambitions at the European level?
Logically, Barroso would part from his bland political programme and embark on a revolutionary course, leading to a Convention aiming at a European federation, built on its citizens – liberté, fraternité, egalite and all that.
We, the people, eagerly await the next steps (or clarifications).
Ralf Grahn
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Subscribe To Grahnlaw
Posts
Comments
If he did say it...
ReplyDeletegreat!
In my view there is no reason the EU can't operate as a parliamentary democracy
= that is without a Commission
too...
http://www.ceolas.net/#eu2x
...an unelected Commission that still retains sole rights to initiate legislation that it also oversees the execution of.
The Commission is an enduring hangover from the days of a small, limited, European Coal and Steel Community, a common market for coal and steel set up between 6 countries, when the Commission was called the High Authority.
But now we have 27 member nations in wide-ranging political and economic cooperation, and
736 elected Members of Parliament
that could do more than comment on legislation and share some approval functions.
Panta Rei,
ReplyDeleteIn a parliamentary democracy there would be a politically accountable government instead, I think, and the structural democratic deficit would disappear.
Sadly, I think that Barroso and the member states in general are not farsighted or mature enough to establish a federation with one foreign policy and other suitable powers.