To all the EU-critics on DU, what kinds of reforms do you actually demand?

[DetlefK]

The hatred for the EU here on DU has surprised me a little bit. Especially when it was founded in the ignorance of thinking that the EU and the US are basically the same.
"The US-government is in the pockets of Wall Street! That means that the EU is also some secretive cabal of power-hungry politicians doing the bidding of Big Money!"
"The EU is trying to destroy democracy in Greece to take over the country!" (I shit you not. That is honestly a conspiracy-theory that was thrown towards me here on DU.)

Ra-ra-ra!

And in the wake of the Brexit, I have seen people gloating how getting out of the EU was a good decision and the right decision.
(Let's leave aside all the counter-arguments why that's wrong.)

Similarly, I have repeatedly seen here on DU the demand that the EU needs reforms.

Well, my dear self-declared european-policy-experts, what kinds of reforms do you have in mind?

[FreakinDJ]

1. Not hatred for EU - Hatred for Corp Power

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. OK, but this is a thread about the EU.

Do you have an opinion on the thread topic?

[CJCRANE]

2. The EU doesn't have an elected Senate or an elected President like the US does.

They have an EU Parliament, perhaps equivalent to the House of Representatives, but with less power and influence.

The EU has a democratic deficit.

[DetlefK]

5. Small countries have more seats per voter than big countries.

Big countries have more seats, but small countries have more seats per voter. So it's halfway between a proportional and a federal parliament.

And the EU-commision (the executive organ) is appointed in a way that IIRC big countries get 3 commisioners and small countries get 2 commisioners.

[CJCRANE]

7. Does the average European know who their EU MP is?

Do they have any influence on them or even know what they do?

[DetlefK]

16. They are elected in normal elections, but public interest in them is very low.

[iandhr]

3. I spent a semester in Strasbourg studying the EU.

The power is mostly in the EU commission. Let me in Making the commissioners elecled and not appointed might have gone a long way to removing some of the anger

[DetlefK]

6. I think, a greater problem was heads of state usurping the powers of the EU.

Things that were supposed to be decided by the EU were suddenly decided by heads of state (like Merkel and Sarkozy) making backroom-deals.

That's not transparent, that wasn't how things were supposed to be done. I guess, this also irked lots of people.

[iandhr]

8. I don't think so.

Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy were elected and have (had in Sarkozy's case) a democratic mandate to govern. Most senior Brussels officials are appointed.

[DetlefK]

15. A mandate to govern their own countries, not the other EU-countries.

If those decisions were made within the framework of the EU, the influences of the countries would be balanced. But France and Germany wield indirectly so much veto-power that the EU cannot oppose the backroom-deals that these two made.

[uponit7771]

11. +1

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. The ease with which the Left Nostalgists joined hands with neofascists is truly alarming

The Left's great challenge is to stop seeing the mid-century settlement as the be all and end all of leftist politics. It was a moment, hard earned but fleeting. Obsessive attachment to it turns us all into reactionaries and morons who forward the cause of the right wing reactionaries by default.

The Left completely lacks creativity. It has been stolen by capitalist innovationism. Unable to innovate or address the future, the Left turns its face to the past, and finds a rosy glow - it's only outcome and exit. Manufacturing, isolationism, monoculture, even traditional gender roles. There's a reason people of color overwhelmingly opposed Sandersism: it's a nostalgic discourse, and nostalgic for a time when people of color were beneath the boot of white supremacy. There is no Left, essentially. It lacks the imagination to actually deal with contemporary capitalism.

[Meldread]

13. I want to co-sign this so strongly.

Although, I don't entirely agree that the ENTIRE left has run out of creativity. I know a lot of leftists (myself included) who see the world in fundamentally different ways than the Old Left, and as a consequence we have fundamentally different solutions. Usually these solutions go far beyond what they would find acceptable, because they are committed to such a small minded world view.

It is very reminiscent of reactionary conservatism.

[texstad79]

17. Outstanding post! n/t

[ileus]

10. speaking of self-declared european-policy-experts

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. Quite a lot of people here are shockingly ignorant

but that's no surprise; asking most Americans for an informed opinion on international politics is like asking an orangutan about particle physics.

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. I don't demand anything from the EU or the UK because I don't live in either place.

A whole lot of people could use a small dose o' that.

[texstad79]

18. The EU

is seen as a proxy for globalization by many has the same opponents.