It's the final countdown: Tomorrow - or aftertomorrow - we will know whom our lowly skilled and unmotivated national leaders have chosen to be their handymen on the European level.
The one will have to play the role of the Secretary of the European Council, the other will represent the lowest common denominator of what the bosses think about the EU's foreign relations, and we might thus have to call him Low Representative.
Together with Barroso they will form the Troika of Death and Boredom, and Jerzy Buzek (European Parliament President) will smile, lower his head and ask the assembly to approve anything these three men do.
And they will tell us that this is what we need. They will inform us about what they have decided after they have decided. And they will hope that we agree or that we don't care.
But if the choices made tomorrow are bad, we won't be silent, and if we don't agree, we won't be silent. And we will let them know, not just on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, but every day of their term.
We will let them and their bosses know what we think of them, and they will realise that the Union of the Lisbon Treaty cannot be "politics as usual" because we will finally have clear targets - and we will learn to hit!
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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8 comments:
Wow, I can feel the marxist waves from my side of the screen.
Can't you wait to see who's actually elected before criticising them? :)
Yes, Julien, you're right to a certain extent. I tend to agree with Maëlig. Let's wait and see. The Foreign Minister doesn't have to be a "low" representative, or are you a fortune-teller?
May I suggest you to read my post on the issue? I also hate bargaining and lack of transparency, but at least we have mechanisms... Democracy will always be imperfect.
Yeah! Julien for President!
I agree with Eva: Democracy will always be imperfect. Maybe it is because good people don't get involved in politics? Or because dumb people believe that politicians are by definition dumb, unskilled and weak?
It will always remain a mystery to me how people can criticize those in power for their stupidity. If you're better, how come you're not there instead of them? If it is the people who elect stupid people, it is what the people want. I think it's called democracy. Or democrazy.
It is like criticizing modern art: "Hah! I could do that too!"
Opposition is a safe place.
I am quite far away from Marxism, but thanks for the flowers. :-D
The problem is that we always wait until it is too late, until we get what we deserve. And I am not saying that I could do it better, but I want them to do it better. If I were them I would want to be criticised for that is the reason of democratic debates and this is the idea of freedom of speech.
We have elected them to act in our interest but we also need to tell them what our interest is between elections. Especially since only one in 27 members of the European Council is democratically responsible to me through elections.
(But your critque regarding my wording is correct, I used "stupidity" knowing that it is pure polemic. Sometimes a blogger needs to do this... :-))
The opaque nomination procedures in the European Council are not an example of how democracy works imperfectly, but of how intergovernmental cooperation and diplomacy between nation states take place.
EU citizens who want the European Union to act as a democracy, have to demand democratic reform.
It's a pity I was right, hoped so much that this was just polemics...
Julien,
There is still the gender balance of the Commission to look forward to.
Sometimes I am not sure whether you have a very dry sense of humor... :-D
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