What The Dickens Is Up With The European Commission?

TL:DR

This is a lengthy article, so in summary:

The negative and counter-productive comments by the European Commission (EC) are due to it having a public service that has direct policy making power and is unelected and unaccountable. I argue that urgent reform is required to remove those powers and to focus it upon the actual job of a public service organisation; policy implementation.

Additionally the EC needs to be removed from the 'Brexit' negotiation process and the responsibility for EU negotiation must be vested with the Parliament and Council alone.

The apparent EC view that it should be the pre-eminent power within the EU has resulted in the likelihood that Britons considering either a vote to accept the results of the negotiation or to reconsider membership have hardened their attitude, now being convinced that the last thing they'll do is fall under the effect of these arrogant mandarins.

If the intention of the EC was to encourage the UK to reconsider EU membership, their comments have failed spectacularly. If it's to enforce their world view upon the rest of remaining members then I advise the remaining member states to take reform action now.

An Introduction

Firstly, I must declare my interests in this article, because some readers won't have the same viewpoint as me and that's OK. I put my historical position here, so that no readers will be in doubt where my position comes from.

1. I'm British, so this post is from the British point of view. I don't claim to be representative of other nations.
2. This is my personal view. It's in no way representative of anyone else's view: No individual, political party or campaign or any organisation, commercial or otherwise.
3. I favoured a "Remain" position in the now legendary "Brexit" Referendum. However, that doesn't mean to say that I was a 'Europhile'. I saw problems in the current structure of the EU. In my view, the EU structure is in need of urgent structural reform. Rather, I saw the social and economic misery that would descend upon the UK by leaving and thought that the best interests of the country were served by remaining inside the EU.

OK. On to the main point...

What's Up With the European Commission (EC)?

What the hell is wrong with the EC? Seriously: What are they playing at?

They say that they're not out to "...punish the UK...", but their recent behaviour leads me to think otherwise. It also appears to be more extreme and less conciliatory than the rest of the EU's statements. I think that this is because of the unique nature of the EU structure. Let me try to explain what I mean.

The Structure of EU Bodies

Pretty much all modern democracies have a common political structure. Whatever it's called it's broadly split into three elements:

1. A lower house - usually directly elected by citizens.
2. An upper house - may or may not be directly elected or may be appointees. Could be called a Senate, Lords or Deputies; whatever.
3. These houses usually form the Executive from the political party or parties that either:
1. have an outright majority in the house, or
2. form a coalition to deliver a majority
3. The remaining parties form the opposition to the Executive.
4. Public Servants - usually referred to as Public Service or Civil Service, but that varies from country to country.

In most democracies the houses debate legislation proposed by the Executive and laws are passed by the lower house and reviewed and amended by the upper house. This legislation then becomes a law of the country. It is then the job of the public servants, in the form of the government departments to implement those laws. There is therefore, a clear division of labour in the making of any given country's laws:

1. The legislature (houses) make and pass the laws.
2. The public service implements those laws.

The distinction here is that the public service has no formal law making role; they cannot make policy. (They often advise the Executive though.)

This is not so with the EU however.

Broadly, the EU is organised in the same manner:

1. The European Parliament is directly elected by the citizenry and could be thought of as the lower house.
2. The European Council is formed from the Executive of each member country and could be thought of as the upper house.
3. The European Commission is responsible for the implementation of those laws passed by the Parliament and Council.

However, the EC also has input in making policy and laws at the EU level. To see the structure of the EU, check out the EU Website, Europa. This is where I personally have a problem.

Why does what is effectively the public service of the EU have a formal role in making policy?

This seems to fly in the face of the organisation of practically every modern democracy. Sure, I accept that the EU must have it's own public service to implement EU laws evenly across all its members, but why is an unelected body of, in effect, the public service allowed to make policy? Can you imagine if the public service in your own country were allowed to do so? I suspect that this would be called "undemocratic" and wouldn't be permitted. Why, then, is this the norm in the EU?

I don't know, but to me, this is equally undemocratic and makes the EC a 'super-powered' public service that has the power to affect citizens' lives without being remotely accountable to the citizenry. How is this democratic? It's not and should be stopped.

The Results of This 'Broken' Structure

What are the results of having an unaccountable body (the EC) that can directly effect EU policy making? Well, in this lone Brit's view, it leads to arrogance and the safety of being able to act against the interests of the citizenry without fearing for your job.

This is why the current comments on the 'Brexit' negotiations by the EC are just plain unhelpful and counter-productive. Take the comments from the European Council versus the heads of states from other member countries. Yes, they're broadly in line, but much more nuanced. They hold out the possibility of some sort of negotiation process whereas comments from the EC are just plain negative and embody the '...my way or the highway...' attitude redolent of the unelected EC. This is not helpful in the slightest.

If you can't say anything constructive in these complicated process, do the other parties a favour and keep your mouth shut! Let those who are interested in finding a solution get on with finding that solution. Let the Presidents of the Parliament and Council handle the negotiations and just keep out of it. I propose that the EC is excluded from the negotiation entirely. This is business for the Parliament and Council alone to represent the position of the remaining 27 members.

The Effect of EC Comments Upon the 'Average' Brit

If the EC hoped to galvanise the "Great British Public" into remaining inside the EU, then it's sadly and deeply mistaken. What this constant stream of negativity and intransigence will do is make otherwise reasonable people set themselves against remaining within the EU at all costs. Where they may have moved to wanting a vote on the 'Brexit' terms (once known) or a vote to reconsider membership, after those comments it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens. It only confirms their belief that these unelected mandarins have far too much control over their lives.

If that was your intention EC, then congratulations. You've succeeded beyond your wildest expectations. If not, well shut up and let the sincere people handle the negotiations.

Personally, I think the comments are made because the EC does want to "...punish the UK..." for having the temerity to want to leave the EU. It wants to set an example to other members that might be considering leaving. Well, think how this might come across to prospective members?

The EC have completely failed to recognise a common characteristic of the 'average' British person. That is; we're pretty flexible people, but back us into a corner and we'll come out fighting. That's what we'll do. We'll cut our noses off to spite our face, rather than do what you want. Great EC; I hope that you're now happy?

If the remaining members are paying any attention to this, then I'd advise them to reform the EU in order that the EC has no direct policy making power. Make it more akin to your own nation's public service; responsible for policy implementation only and no more or less than that.

Thanks for reading.