25/04/2012
This is going to run and run. But, illustrating how sensitive the EU commission is about an increased budget, it has produced a
sort of rebuttal, claiming to be the good guys.
But what I particularly like here is item five, where the commission tells us that: we are wrong to assert that: "The EU budget is decided by Eurocrats without any democratic procedures".
The annual EU budget, it tells us, is decided by
elected politicians, in the European Parliament and in the Council that brings together the Member States. Thus, we are told, "The Commission only proposes the budget, and has to respect the ceilings set out for a period of time (currently 2007-2013) by these
elected politicians".
And there you have it ⦠the fatal (but probably deliberate) mistake in assuming that elections necessarily, or at all, confer democracy. Of course, without a unified demos, you cannot have a meaningful election. It the demos has no power to assert its agenda, there is no democracy.
More to the point, I have read numerous commission reports and study papers on the nature of democracy, and the so called "democratic deficit" within the EU. There is certainly no misunderstanding within the heart of the institution, and a full awareness that the Union is
not democratic, and nor is its decision-making.
One of the most important of those papers was the white paper on
European Governance, with a critique
here, actually written by myself (ghosted for Nigel Farage) but, rather bizarrely, attributed to Dr Cris Shore (now corrected, with commendable speed).
When you see what they know, and what they actually say, it thus becomes evident that the Commission is playing games. As bad, they are insulting our intelligence. That is a very silly thing to do.
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