[ILUG] EU constitution

[Bernhard Rohrer]

> Secondly, what, precisely, is wrong with each country having their own
laws? The enactment of laws is a solemn duty carried out by
> parliaments, based upon the wishes of the electorate. It is not the
right of some crowd of has-been politicos sitting in closed session out
of the public gaze.

indeed. this is why we have a European Parliament.

let's face it. more than 50% of our laws already come from the EU. And 
I'd rather have our elected representatives - ie. the EU Parliament 
handle that than the Prime Minister of Poland deciding what is good for 
Ireland and France and ...

Why? because he has been elected by his people to take care of the 
_national_ interest. The MEPs have been elected to take care of the EU 
and give us a democratic access. The current debate is a good example: 
The commission and the council are playing hokay with democracy and we 
are relying on the EP to save the day.

There are projections that envision the development of the EU instutions 
like this:

EP - Lower house and main representation
Council - upper house (like US Senate)
Commission - Cabinet

this model makes sense to me. At the moment the sheer reluctance of 
member states to hand more power over to the EP and to reliquish veto 
rights leads to all sorts of ratty compromises. Why for instance should 
the UK which profits as much as any other EU nation only have to pay a 
quarter of the membership dues? Because they can blackmail the EU with 
their veto powers.

cheers

Bernhard