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EU Integrity Watch

integritywatch.eu

21–30 of 55 posts

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#21
post #12

> decisions made by politicians in the European Union I just want my life not to be controlled anymore by an unelected thingie such as the European Commission, as such, shifting the blame on provincial (because that's what they are by now, anyway) politicians is just very counter-productive. And then the powers that be will act surprised when they see that anti-EU sentiment is gaining ground (it's the Russians' fault…

In quite a few European countries the government isn't directly elected - so "unelected" is a bit tricky here unless you are extending that to those national governments, too.

Of course that I'm extending that to any unelected government/political entity whose decisions happen to affect people's lives on a national level (so I'm skipping the discussion about the unelected local "mayors"/leaders from some big European cities, even though a discussion should be had even there).

Thing is that during the last 10 or 15 years (things seem to have accelerated after the latest big financial crisis) almost all consequential decisions taken at the national level have just been continuations of directives coming from Brussels, so even the politicians that happen to get elected at the national level are now just, I don't know what the best term would be, pawns? And this latest Next Generation EU madness has just made things worse, across the board, on account of "you'll be doing what you're told or no money for you!".

Looking at Brexit from that perspective helps make better sense now, it was not all a "the poor toothless people have taken Britain out of the wonderful EU!" as the tertiary sector elites in South-East England made it out to look just after the fact, as Britain was one of the few political entities that could have disentangled from the whole mess while they still got the chance for that. Not sure how to judge of the results of it all, maybe it's too soon to call it, but there was reason behind the apparent madness.

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#23
post #12

> decisions made by politicians in the European Union I just want my life not to be controlled anymore by an unelected thingie such as the European Commission, as such, shifting the blame on provincial (because that's what they are by now, anyway) politicians is just very counter-productive. And then the powers that be will act surprised when they see that anti-EU sentiment is gaining ground (it's the Russians' fault…

It's likely to get much, much worse: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/eu-parliament...

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#24
post #12

> decisions made by politicians in the European Union I just want my life not to be controlled anymore by an unelected thingie such as the European Commission, as such, shifting the blame on provincial (because that's what they are by now, anyway) politicians is just very counter-productive. And then the powers that be will act surprised when they see that anti-EU sentiment is gaining ground (it's the Russians' fault…

> And then the powers that be will act surprised when they see that anti-EU sentiment is gaining ground

Is it though? The last time it was "gaining ground" (Brexit) it was mostly and old vs young divide, with young people rather overwhelmingly supporting the EU. I wonder how much of this sentiment is down to politicians wanting to do things that are otherwise forbidden by EU-wide laws and regulations (most of which are rather good, actually).

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#25
post #14
post #7

The first three comments within the hour that this article was posted, were made by a 10-minutes old account and seem suspiciously like anti-EU astroturfing. Makes me hope or wish for a cross-website pseudonymous karma system, to at least rein in this kind of public opinion gaming. Back on-topic: this website seems to be a net positive, already it's challenging some of my preconceptions in that some EU member states…

I've been on this forum for 16 years, 17 years soon if God permits, I've just added an anti-European Commission comment somewhere else in this thread, hope that helps keeping score with who's saying what.

Pretty sure your comment wasn't what was intended, as it hadn't been posted yet. And let's not pretend the comments being referred to are reasonable. They're flagged and dead for a reason.

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#26
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In quite a few European countries the government isn't directly elected - so "unelected" is a bit tricky here unless you are extending that to those national governments, too.

Of course that I'm extending that to any unelected government/political entity whose decisions happen to affect people's lives on a national level (so I'm skipping the discussion about the unelected local "mayors"/leaders from some big European cities, even though a discussion should be had even there). Thing is that during the last 10 or 15 years (things seem to have accelerated after the latest big financial crisis…

> Of course that I'm extending that to any unelected government/political entity whose decisions happen to affect people's lives on a national level

So that's (almost?) every government? For example, in the Netherlands, we do elect the members of parliament, but they then choose the government (hence the government being unelected).

And of course, that government then nominates a Commissioner, forming the European Commission together with other EU governments (hence it being similarly unelected).

And then of course, our government also gets a say about EU laws, together with other governments.

Just like the European Parliament, which does happen to be directly elected.

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#27
post #11

I hate to be a cynic. But this organisation is funded by the people it is watching. There's another organisation called transparency.org, same situation. I tried to contact them about corruption in the past and they refused to get back to me, they just wouldn't respond to my calls (Answer phone) and refused to call me back. So much for this mission statements. The main purpose in my cynical view is to provide the app…

They also have the King's commissioner in the Netherlands. I've read interviews with him and articles about him. They say he's like a watch dog against corruption in the province. I tried to arrange for a meeting with him to report some serious corruption. I they ignored me. I called every week for six weeks. Then I was told I'd get a response by mail. I did indeed get a response and from the King's commissioner. He responded that he didn't have the authority to do anything. He didn't even want to heard what it was that I had to report. Then why is every one reporting that he's a kind of watch dog on corruption in the province?

Again, the existence of his role is simply to give the perception that his role is real and actually does something. People think the Netherlands is less corrupt because they have roles like that etc.

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#28
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In quite a few European countries the government isn't directly elected - so "unelected" is a bit tricky here unless you are extending that to those national governments, too.

Of course that I'm extending that to any unelected government/political entity whose decisions happen to affect people's lives on a national level (so I'm skipping the discussion about the unelected local "mayors"/leaders from some big European cities, even though a discussion should be had even there). Thing is that during the last 10 or 15 years (things seem to have accelerated after the latest big financial crisis…

The European Commission is not appointed by some unearthly deity, nor is European legislation divorced from the national governments.

Also, a lot of important decisions are still national (even if they might be dressed up as European).

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#29
post #6

How are EU citizens going to prevent a politician favoring for the wrong reasons some big corps while mandated (by doing things... or carefully not doing anything...) and ending up, after his/her mandate, in some proxy of this big corp to be thanked "nicely" (from the bottom of big corp wallet). It is very important to draw a clear line between "right" and "wrong" reasons, because all policitians after their mandate…

Usually lobbing on this side of the pound is considered corruption, and even though there are several politicians that get away with it, there are also several others that have had to face the courts.

Re: EU Integrity Watch

#30
post #27
post #11

I hate to be a cynic. But this organisation is funded by the people it is watching. There's another organisation called transparency.org, same situation. I tried to contact them about corruption in the past and they refused to get back to me, they just wouldn't respond to my calls (Answer phone) and refused to call me back. So much for this mission statements. The main purpose in my cynical view is to provide the app…

They also have the King's commissioner in the Netherlands. I've read interviews with him and articles about him. They say he's like a watch dog against corruption in the province. I tried to arrange for a meeting with him to report some serious corruption. I they ignored me. I called every week for six weeks. Then I was told I'd get a response by mail. I did indeed get a response and from the King's commissioner. He…

What kind of corruption are we talking about?
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