Thread: Democratizing the European Union

JR .. these two examples you use are not a fair comparison .. Canada has just two official languages, and Switzerland has 4, only 3 of which are actually used. Compare that to the EU, the UN, and any large assembly of languages .. it is cacophony and requires massive funding for translations.

Originally Posted by Jacques Roman

And could you imagine that the model you are apparently sticking to is passé?

In Canada and Switzerland, they are using more than one language and have apparently no problem of the type you describe.

Even more to the point: since 1919, in all international organizations such as the League of Nations, the UN and the EU itself meetings heve been routinely held everyday in many languages, with synchronized applauds and boos.

The problem you are mentioning is an imaginary one. JR

You would like everybody to use only English, wouldn't you?

You probably did not observe multilingual meetings and are unfamiliar with the way they are conducted and achieve results: otherwise, you would not entertain (as is obvious you do) the notion that interpretation and translation are too costly or useless exercises in the conduct of international and European affairs. JR

Originally Posted by Jacques Roman

You would like everybody to use only English, wouldn't you?

You probably did not observe multilingual meetings and are unfamiliar with the way they are conducted and achieve results: otherwise, you would not entertain (as is obvious you do) the notion that interpretation and translation are too costly or useless exercises in the conduct of international and European affairs. JR

€300m is not chump change .. and I note it is "estimated" only... which means the sky's the limit.

Frequently asked questions about DG Translation

@Marilyn: It's the price to pay to allow European citizens to enjoy their languages to the fullest extent, a consideration (@rjt) that is more important than any consideration of savings. JR

Speaking about straight jackets, what about the pound sterling? Or do you think the results are much better than with the euro? JR

Originally Posted by Marilyn

JR .. these two examples you use are not a fair comparison .. Canada has just two official languages, and Switzerland has 4, only 3 of which are actually used. Compare that to the EU, the UN, and any large assembly of languages .. it is cacophony and requires massive funding for translations.

Language will not be a problem once the European Races have been simplified and clarified.

Europe must adopt the British Racial Identification system as promoted by the United Races Racial Democratic Movement.

So there.

You have all been told.

Any questions?

(23) Abolish it, and leave countries alone to police their own borders, set their own laws and preserve their culture. etc.

That would be democratic.

Originally Posted by Jacques Roman

Twenty-two proposals to democratize the EU

A recap of the ways (in my view) to democratize the EU follows. Details are in Euroconstitution.org (the site is in French, but you can contribute in English if you wish):

(1) Make it clear that the EU is a free association of States (= a confederation) that remain sovereign in international law;

(2) Make even clearer that the EU has only those powers that are assigned to it by its fundamental documents (either treaties, or preferably, in the future, a constitution);

(3) Allow enhanced cooperations provided they do not impose additional obligations upon uninvolved member states and at the same time remain open to all those who would accept the decisions already made by the existing cooperating states;

(4) Make it crystal-clear that the Union shall not deal with matters of philosophical or religious convictions except to contribute to the preservation of public order where its fundamental documents so provide;

(5) Recognize the primacy of human rights;

(6) Promote participatory democracy, including through the use of citizen-initiated referendums based on thorough and transparent public debate, with participation and voting threshholds to ensure that any decision so reached reflects the actual views of the majority of the European citizens and not those of an accidental active minority;

(7) Moralize European parliamentary elections by prohibiting the cumulation of elected positions: a member of the European Parliament should be able to concentrate full-time on her/his European parliamentary responsibilities;

(8) Allow for majority voting in all EU bodies, with the proviso that any member (head of state or government) the European Council will have the power to have any measure suspended until a compromise has been found or the European Court of Justice has rendered its decision.

(9) Establish a permanent system of consultation between the EU and citizen's associations whose purposes are compatible with the EU treaties (or constitution);

(10) Maintain the current requirement that accession to the EU necessitates unanimous approval by the existing member states;

(11) Reinforce the petition right provided in the current treaties by requiring the Commission and Parliament to deal in detail, with their recommendations, on any petition submitted by, say, one percent at least of the European citizens, from any country(ies);

(12) Generally, reinforce the role of the European Council as the guarantor of the international sovereignty of member states;

(13) Make the Commission an actual Union government working in the same way as national governments within its sphere of competence, and to be designated or approved by the European Parliament;

(14) Generally, reinforce the powers of the European Parliament along the lines of national parliaments (within the limits of EU confederal jurisdiction);

(15) Election of a president of the EU by the European Parliament and the national parliaments of all member states. The president would, essentially, chair the European Council and be able to draw the attention of any EU institution to any issue of general interest, especially following the submission of a petition by European citizens (this is a new proposal);

(16) Reinforce the powers of the Court of Auditors and make follow-up more effective;

(17) Keep the euro as the EU common currency, but allow members countries to make use of an auxiliary national currency having the status of a subdivision of the euro, to be exchangeable only against the euro and the other auxiliary national currencies (this is a new proposal taking into account the lessons of the current debt crisis);

(18) Preserve the operational independence of the European Central Bank, which should, however, work within the financial, economic and political framework agreed upon by the Council, the Parliament and the Commission;

(19) Give the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) the status of a EU institution at a high level, together with operational independence under the joint supervision of the Council, the Parliament and the Commission (there is no credible policy without precise, transparent, impartial and easily comparable information made permanently available to all the citizens);

(20) Reinforce to the extent necessary the current recourse procedures relating to EU legislative acts and regulations;

(21) Recognize that all European languages without exception, including languages other than official EU languages, are an asset to the EU as a whole and take all measures required to use them as widely as possible within the Union on the basis of the needs expressed by each member country (this applies above all to EU bodies and to official EU languages);

(22) Any revision of the EU fundamental treaties (or, at a later stage, hopefully, constitution) should be approved through referendum – either a national one or (if national law does not provide for referendum) a special referendum organized under the authority of the EU.

I am sure other proposals could be made. JR