Comment by mytailorisrich
3 days ago
The only solution is to stop the EU level power grab by formally restricting what the EU can do and to make sure member states remain where most of the power lies.
The US have that. The EU does not so as time passes the EU's power keeps creeping up.
> The EU does not so as time passes the EU's power keeps creeping up.
Actually, the EU has the same concept of enumerated powers (called "competences" in the case of the EU). They are listed in articles 2-6 TFEU [1]. You may argue over whether the EU has too many competences or (in some areas) too little, but it's the same principle. The EU cannot legislate outside areas where power has been expressly conferred to it by the treaties.
This is in fact one point of contention over the "chat control" legislation. It is supposed to be enacted under the "internal market" competence, but similar to the US commerce clause, there is a legal debate over whether that competence is actually sufficient to enable such legislation or whether it is legal cover for encroachment on competences reserved to the member states.
This would of course be up to the ECJ to decide, just as the US Suprement Court would have to decide if any given US federal legislation is covered by the commerce clause.
In addition, there is the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the ECJ could also strike down EU legislation (as it has done before) if it violates the rights protected by the Charter.
[1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Consolidated_version_of_the_T...
One key tool of power creep are those very treaties. Let's do one more treaty and had things in the small prints. Of course the member states drafted and agreed to those and that's why pressure should be on governments to stop hand over the keys to Brussels.
That's in addition to the constant Commission push for more power and they often overstep their role... We're seeing clearly on issues like Ukraine and, lately Israel.
> Of course the member states drafted and agreed to those and that's why pressure should be on governments to stop hand over the keys to Brussels.
What specific example are you thinking of where additional power was handed to Brussels through an amendment of the treaties?
> That's in addition to the constant Commission push for more power...
If you are worried about the executive trying to expand its power (and something that should be kept in check), may I suggest that the US is not actually a great example right now for how to avoid that?
The US has that in theory, just like the limits on the president. But in practice the US has been centralizing power since the start, and the EU has a looooong way to go to come even close.
This feels like a recipe for dysfunction and more paralysis.
The reason nothing gets done in the EU is because the power is too decentralized and we're not all pulling in the same direction. We're getting stuck in petty national interests instead of the European cause.
The fix is the exact opposite - take power from the nation states and centralize it in the EU. There's a reason the US became a single country and not loosely associated states.
"the European cause."
Plenty of Europeans, including me, disagree with you on the very existence of a "European cause".
"There's a reason the US became a single country and not loosely associated states."
I don't want federal EU, many others don't either. At least hold a referendum before running your fix. I suspect that most member countries would vote against being reduced to provinces of a centralized state.
You will be reduced to provinces of a centralized state anyways, seeing the CZ in your name. The only question is if the capital would be Brussels or Moscow.
We don't have the luxury of waiting for endless referenda. The enemy's at the gates.
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> The reason nothing gets done in the EU is because the power is too decentralized and we're not all pulling in the same direction.
Look at what EU wants to do. I would be glad if nothing got done but unfortunately a lot of their horrible regulations do and Europeans suffer for it.
> The fix is the exact opposite - take power from the nation states and centralize it in the EU.
No.
The EU is not sovereign. Member countries can just outright ignore EU law (see: Hungary or the former UK) and the only recourses are civil things like issuing declarations, withholding payments, crossing them off treaties, or kicking them out of the EU. There are no EU police that can be involuntarily forced on a country the same way the USA can send armed federal police or military into its states. Doing anything like that would be a declaration of war.
A state is a monopoly on violence and EU member states overwhelmingly control their own.
s/the former UK/formerly the UK/