what a laughable comparison. We the Dutch people elect 100% of the Dutch parliament which forms the Dutch government. In other words, the dutch ‘demos’ has complete control. And in France, the president is directly elected by people (again, a ‘demos’, the french one in this case).

On the EU level there is no demos, thus there cannot be democracy. Furthermore, like I have said a few times before, a ‘parliament’ without legislative intiative is not a real parliament under ANY definition. Maybe it fools gullible people, but it does not fool me.

We the people of the Netherlands did at no time authorize the creation of a setup that would enable Greek, Latvian, Italian, Portuguese and Polish politicians having a vote in what laws we in the Netherlands ought to have. Democratic? I think not.

If you lived in a street with 27 houses, and your neighbours would vote 20-6 that you would have to give them money, because after all they just had a ‘democratic’ vote, would you honor their vote? Of course not, because they are not a ‘demos’. The EU is not, never has been and was never meant to be democratic. The political elites despise the people which is why people like Merkel and Sarkozy fervently try to deny referendums and all that because they know the peoples DO NOT AGREE WITH MORE INTEGRATION.

I am also wishing, of course, that the EU would be more democratic, by being indeed more of a demos and having more direct representation within its institutions. But saying that it is a politburo and undemocratic is an obvious distortion of facts. Unless of course you believe that France or the Netherlands are undemocratic, also governed by Politburos… In this case, there is nothing we can do for you.

Barroso was APPOINTED by the heads of government, with the not-really-a parliament EU ‘parliament’ given the ’swallow or spit’ option only. Anything that does not have legislative initiative, by definition is NOT a parliament.

Clown Barroso wasn’t elected by anyone as democratic elections can only be done by voters who represent a nation (demos). And the EU has nothing of the kind. Barroso, the arrogant unelected undemocratic unaccountable elitist EU Politburo premier (commission = politburo) does not represent me.

Why do you hate democracy so much? Why do you love the undemocratic EU so much? Do you look down upon ordinary voters? Or do you not trust them to ‘vote the right way’ (ie vote for more integration)?

I shouldn’t really be surprised you are a socialist, because socialists have an extremely bad trackrecord when it comes to democratic values (I present national socialism and international socialism -communism- as facts that support such a statement).

Barosso was ELECTED by the European Parliament on the nomination of the European Council. Furthermore, he and his fellow commissioners are directly accountable to our directly-elected parliament for the policies and decisions they make.

It is these sorts of very basic mistakes by europhobes that degrade their entire argument against the European Union. Better luck next time.

Desmond O’Toole
PES activists Dublin
(Personal capacity)

Barroso can’t do anything about the EMF proposal. It will be the German version.

The disaster in Greece was not of its own making. The euro was set up so that it would engender crises such as this, for the purpose of the powers at the top grabbing more power. Purely imperialistic. Prodi even admitted it back when the euro first came out—a crisis to allow Brussels to break taboos and force a European economic government? Well, here we are…

While national politicans have some, but not alot, restraint when it somes to their expenses because of the possibility of embarrassing questions asked by their oppositions and the media, these eurocrats have no such constraint exerted on them, apart from the annual furiore over MEP expenses, which die a suddent death after a week.

I feel that her job required nothing less than someone with the diplomatic skills of Ataturk, the global presence of Nelson Mandela and the political skills of Niccolo Machiavelli. Not easy at all.