Thread by @ottocrat

This troll has published a thread attacking @Femi_Sorry for his video on EU democracy. I don’t like feeding trolls, but this one is getting attention for the wrong reason and his thread deserves detailed rebuttal. It’s a staggering tissue of lies and half-truths.

The EU always consults national govts in areas where it has exclusive competence. It does this through the “comitology” process - a network of committees in which member state governments advise, consult, and manage the EU civil service in its work.

When it comes to actually legislating in areas of exclusive competence, in the vast majority of all cases the Member States (Council) and elected MEPs are the legislators acting on a proposal from the Commission.

In a few special cases the Commission has powers of derogation meaning that legislation can be fast-tracked. These are clearly defined and overseen by the comitology process. So: @GAtypical is lying.

Obviously laws originate with the executive rather than the legislature, that’s how it works in any democracy. That’s how it works in the UK. On government’s (ie executive) instruction, a civil service “bill team” drafts a law before it goes to the House of Commons.

The Commission is a College of 28 Commissioners supported by a civil service. The College are national politicians nominated by member state governments & appointed by the Commission President who is elected by the “Spitzenkandidat” procedure.

The College is the equivalent of the Cabinet in the UK system - each Commissioner has civil servants working for him and her the way a UK government minister does. Obviously those civil servants are unelected and apolitical, as they are in the UK. They do the work of government.

The “true power” in the EU lies with all its institutions - in a balanced way - that is how it was designed by the EU Member States themselves. Power is distributed between the executive Commission with its elected President, the Council (national govs) & directly elected EP.

This is a bare-faced lie. The EP carries out detailed work on legislation, amending it and ultimately either approving it or rejecting it.

Another lie. In 1999, following a vote of censure in the European Parliament, the College of Commissioners under the Presidency of Jacques Santer resigned en masse. I was there.

A brazen lie. MEPs can and do change and reject law on a daily basis. It’s their job. See for example the radical changes made to #GDPR legislation under the leadership of German MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, Parliament’s “rapporteur”.

A “rapporteur” is an MEP appointed by Parliament to lead detailed scrutiny of the Commission’s legislative proposal within a committee of MEPs who bring their findings to the Plenary. These are incredibly influential in the process. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Phili…

Ping-pong between the legislative chambers. Sound familiar?

This is a lie. The Parliament’s Committee proceedings are a matter of public record and anyone can sit in on them. I have many times, and tweeted photos & video from them. Nothing very secret about that.

Parliament and Council committees cannot sign off legislation themselves whether in secret or not. Their work must be approved or rejected by the top tier: Parliament acting in plenary and the full Council of the EU ie Member State government ministers.

Lie upon lie upon lie. Voters get to elect the Parliament, the Council, and the President of the Commission. That’s more democracy than you get in the UK with its unelected House of Lords! Parliament has huge power. And does nothing in secret.

I’m sorry @GAtypical the EU is better functioning, more transparent, more democratic than the UK government. Now let’s turn to lobbying. Obviously this powerful organisation is lobbied. All governments are. And not just by big business.

The EU even has formal advisory bodies to give stakeholders (“lobbyists”) a voice: the Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions. The UK doesn’t have those. No, the UK has a secretive culture of business links where MPs can be paid for “consulting”.

We even have influential MPs running side businesses where they profit from the policies they are pushing in the House of Commons. forbes.com/consent/?toURL…

Ah, now we get to it. Seems @GAtypical’s real problem is with dirty foreigners sharing our decision-making. I’m a Londoner. What say do I have over MPs elected in Yorkshire?

Ignoring the straw man for a second, we always reach this point with fanatical europhobes. They just don’t like being in a shared governmental organisation with foreigners. It’s just plain old xenophobia. Wait, soon he’ll call it a “demos”. 🙄

Hey, that’s democracy. My national government is comprised of mainly far-right representatives. Am I leaving the UK? No I am engaging in the political process to kick them out.

He keeps repeating this lie, it’s a tried and tested tactic, he’s framing it this way in the hope that his readers will begin to take it as proven. Readers paying attention will see it for what it is, a slanderous lie.

We, the British voters, have plenty. We elect our Council representatives, we elect MEPs, we elect the Commission President (though the Tories in their wisdom withdrew from the EP’s conservative group & so gave away your say over Juncker). UK staff work in the Commission 👋

The Council of the EU (“Council of Ministers”) is one of the EU’s legislative chambers. The European Council is not a “policy talking shop” it is the format in which EU Heads of Government meet!! It exists at intergovernmental level above the EU’s architecture & steers the EU.

To be fair this is a pretty accurate description of Brexit.

Why would someone suggest that we trade real accountability, real democracy and true political power in the EU for what a democratically flawed system of lost sovereignty in pursuing a #flexcit Norway-plus Brexit? The answer is ideological zealotry.

You vote for MEPs who have real power. You can write to them, visit them, hell you can tweet them, they answer back (some do anyway!). They hold surgeries. And they don’t hold down multiple jobs - well except for Farage.

MEPs can and do defeat and amend legislation, they can even originate legislation. UK MPs can try, and then they get #choped. Who’d choose the farce/tragedy in the House of Commons this week over the democratic legislative powerhouse the European Parliament?

The thread from @GAtypical was a tissue of lies from beginning to end, serving his/her objective of misleading readers who may not know the details of our complex national and European government structures into supporting his/her exploded idea of a “liberal leave” soft Brexit.

A soft “EEA plus” Brexit would be a disaster for our democracy.

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by @ottocrat view original on Twitter

The EU is far more democratic than most people realise, and set against it the UK does not look match fit. Time to #StopBrexit and focus our energies on reforming the UK. /end