tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7066105055768088299.post2431007207990428258..comments2023-10-30T11:42:45.966+00:00Comments on Mary Honeyball MEP: THE PEER, THE BANKER AND THE OLIGARCHMary Honeyballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981857726691650802noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7066105055768088299.post-75879244408453392432008-10-28T11:11:00.000+00:002008-10-28T11:11:00.000+00:00I think that part of the problem is that the Europ...I think that part of the problem is that the European Commission is both an executive and a civil service body, and one that has the power to issue formal decisions to named individuals and companies. That tends to breed a certain amount of secret hustling, especially since the Commission is also dealing with a Council that tends to meet in secret.<BR/><BR/>You must see that some of this comes from the flaws in the Parliament. To be fair to you, you've identified one key one--the silly shuttling back and forth between strasbourg, Brussels, and I assume, occasionally Luxembourg. <BR/><BR/>But another is the Parliament's electoral systems. No secure personal constituencies mean dependence on party lists, which means that national party interests trump your independence in the final analysis.<BR/><BR/>The European Parliament spends it time thus floating around like the continental congress or the Hapsburg diet, or indulging itself.<BR/><BR/>Is there nothing you'd want? A smooth and readily available way to bring enforecement actions against states not implementing directives? Individual veto of commissioners? Criminal or civil subpoenas? <BR/><BR/>There must be something....Martin Meenaghhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06092121503713511010noreply@blogger.com