Comments on: European Parliament: power does not mean people will vote

By: Pinnacle | The European elections 2009 – bets are on

Pinnacle | The European elections 2009 – bets are on — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:03:01 +0000

[...] in most European countries especially new member states that joined in 2004. Look at this blog Jon Worth Euro Blog – The only increase in interest seems to be in protest parties who thrive on punishing [...]

By: James Burnside

James Burnside — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:23:43 +0000

Jon, You say “Amending the services directive has been one of the EP’s big successes since 2004″, and there are plenty in the Parliament who would say that, but is it really true? Even the Economic and Social Committee (who they?) claim that they were the first to bring the parties round the table and come up with the ideas that formed the basis of the final directive. But it’s all basically spin.
It was clear after the heat generated on the issue, in the French referendum campaign in particular, that the Commission’s proposal (particuarly when the Commission had changed and Bolkestein and co weren’t around to defend it) wasn’t going to be adopted by either Parliament or Council without significant changes. I would question whether the final outcome owes any more to Parliament than to the Council…it takes two to tango and all that.
What it does illustrate is the ever-increasing move of Parliamentary business from the public arena of committees (ok, there was always plenty of discussions in the (coffee) bars and in small groups which were neither minuted or public) to private meetings involving a small number of MEPs, the Council Presidency and the Commission. More and more significant legislative decisions are taken behind closed doors and presented as a package to be approved by the relevant committee and rubber-stamped in plenary. If you like, conciliation, fomally the final step in the codecision process is taking place informally (i.e. without the time limits and formal requirements) earlier and earlier in the process.
Perhaps it’s idealistic to imagine things otherwise, but it appears that the Parliament is now more than ever focused on getting legislation adopted rather than on discussing its merits. If everything’s pre-cooked before the Commission even adopts a proposal, of course, it’s almost certain to be adopted, but it seems to me that Parliament needs to take a step back from its default position that all legislative proposals from the Commission are destined to become legislation, with a few “trophy” amendments to show Parliament has muscles. More questioning of the Commission’s aims and whether legislating is even the best approach, never mind in the form of the specific proposal, would surely demonstrate the Parliament’s worth more than a handful of technical amendments.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:46:10 +0000

I could be wrong, but as I understand it turnout in national elections in Poland, Latvia etc. is lower than in Western Europe. Same for EP elections.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:11:59 +0000

Hey Jon, do you mean to say that voter turnout is falling especially fast in the new EU entrant countries, rather than that the turnout is especially low? Although their voter turnout rates are dropping rapidly compared to where they were in the 90′s, don’t most Eastern European countries still have election turnouts that are much higher than those in Western Europe?

By: Europabloggen.no » Blog Archive » Til Brussel for å slåss mot Brussel

Europabloggen.no » Blog Archive » Til Brussel for å slåss mot Brussel — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:19:19 +0000

[...] at interessen for valget bare faller. Jon Worth forsøker å forklare på sin blogg hvorfor økt makt for parlamentet ikke nødvendigvis gir mer deltakelse. Han peker blant annet på at denne makten er vanskelig å forstå: Secondly, while the European [...]

By: Citizen of Europe

Citizen of Europe — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:50:00 +0000

So, I think, Monika, you confirm my words – the decision is in the hand of member states (member states’s governments) foremost and the voters react on it only.

By: Dominika

Dominika — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:16:33 +0000

From my point of view as a reporter in Brussels the trouble is also in the decision making process of the EU. First I report that “The European Commission is proposing law X”, then I have to tell the readers “The European Parliament agreed to law X which I wrote about 6 months ago, but I still don’t know if it’s going to come into life because the member countries still have to agree”. Anybody awake yet?

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:32:34 +0000

Good post – I fear that the reality in the UK may be that most people think that the EP’s a talking shop, and that’s why they either don’t vote or treat it as a mid-term referendum on national political issues.
And when they do find out what powers the EP has, let alone the extent of the areas in which the EU overall can act, it’s not unusual for them to be afraid and react eurosceptically.

It doesn’t have to be this way of course. But are you aware of any UK political party that really considers it to be vital to their interests to address this? Let alone any mainstream media outlet? It’s useful to be able to bash faceless “Europe”.

So a mixture of ignorance and scepticism. But that’s not so different to the view towards politics overall in the UK – who really knows which political level has responsibility for the things that affect them? But while those in the Westminster village probably believe that everyone has a soft spot for the Palace of Westminster, there does seem to be a growing sense of “them” and “us”, even for national MPs – although some might still regard their MP as a decent bloke (still usually bloke, I’m afraid). The multi-member constituencies for the EP elections makes this personal “ours is all right really” link impossible.

Dan Hannan’s Brown-bashing a few weeks back has perhaps raised the profile of the EP, and probably secured his personal name-recognition with a few more of the voters in his region (although we don’t have a mechanism in our EP electoral system to vote for individuals within party lists), but I’m not sure it’ll do much to up turnout overall, even for the sceptic or phobic parties.

It’s a bit depressing really.