“How I spent my summer holidays,” by Ursula, aged 65¾ years

Commission President submits holiday assignment, affecting lives of 67m Britons and 450m EU citizens

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

EU’s 27 new, unelected rulers announced – men & women who will impact UK lives in next 5 years

Yesterday (17 Sept 2024), 449 million people across the EU were told the names of the rulers and lawmakers who will govern their lives from 2025, in another democratic bypass from Brussels. Frau von der Leyen has spent the summer months working on this, and yesterday she submitted her homework.

In a statement to the media, Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her wish-list of 26 EU Commissioners to help her rule the EU bloc for the next five years, as well as announcing their job titles. She has been working on this since July, when she was confirmed for a second five-year term as EU Commission President. Numerous meetings have been held behind closed doors, with EU27 governments, potential candidates, and leaders of the political groupings in the EU Parliament.

The new rules of the game were ignored

Ms von der Leyen laid down strict rules for all to follow which included each EU member country having to put forward two candidates, one male and one female. She stated that her new Commission would consist of an equal gender balance. In the event and in many cases, her ‘rules’ were simply not followed. Some countries put forward only one name and point-blank refused when von der Leyen insisted on having two.

As a result, von der Leyen had to announce yesterday :

“As you will see, we now have 11 women in the College I propose today. That is 40%.”

The EU’s citizens – and those in the UK’s Northern Ireland - have no say in this

The new proposed Commission will consist of its President (vdL), six ‘Executive Vice Presidents, and 20 Commissioners for one role or another. In some cases the individuals will fulfil two or more roles.

Unlike the US, where the people decide who will be their President, the EU’s citizens had NO chance to vote on Ms von der Leyen. And unlike most democratic countries where ministers are selected from mostly elected representatives, these are appointees, and the EU’s citizens had NO chance to vote on any of them. By contrast, almost all UK Ministers are drawn from the ranks of currently-elected MPs, with the odd exception from the House of Lords.

Not one of these ministers (‘Commissioners’) has even been drawn from the ranks of the democratically-elected body of MEPs in the EU Parliament.

How the choice of EU Commissioners affects the UK

To take just one example of how the composition of the Commission is of interest to the United Kingdom, President Macron has made it clear to the UK government over and over again that he can do nothing about any desired returns deal for illegal boat migrants, as he says this comes under the purview of the Commission.

Readers may yet come to know the name of Magnus Brunner, currently the Federal Minister of Finance of Austria. Herr Brunner is slated as Frau von der Leyen’s new ‘Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration’.

Democratic oversight of the appointments

As we explained in our report on this long, drawn-out EU process in July, the results of Ms von der Leyen’s work over the summer in haggling with member countries must still pass two more stages.

Firstly she must submit her list to the EU Parliament. Each Commissioner will then have to submit to a lengthy interrogation by a committee of MEPs. The full body of MEPs then vote for the Commission as a whole, rather than on individual candidates. Based on past form one or two Commissioners will not be accepted and Ms von der Leyen will then have to put forward alternative candidates, before the MEPs eventually agree on the Commission as a whole. The Commission President then finally submits her list to the Council of 27 EU leaders for rubber-stamping.

Time-scales

The new Commission is supposed to be in place by 01 November, but as we predicted in July it won’t be. We anticipate the new Commission will not be up and running much before Christmas.

Observations

What we have described above is the democratic quagmire that is the EU. A Commission will eventually be formed and it will then start its work drafting and imposing new laws and rules on its 449 million citizens. It can claim no democratic legitimacy or authority for this, but this will not stop it from exerting its powers on people’s everyday lives.

With so many of the EU27’s activities now delegated to the EU, many elements of its work will impact on the United Kingdom as we cited above.

We would welcome comments from those who would take the UK back into this democracy vacuum that is the European Union, justifying how it is remotely reasonable for so much power to lie in the hands of so few unelected and appointed officials.

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Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 18 Sept 2024

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Reader Comments 6

1. Have You Wondered. , Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 08:31:

.
To add to the opaque and volte face nature of the EU. From today's news:
.
Tusk Cherry Picking? !!
Search: tusk admits to legal shortcuts designed to reform judiciary in order to avoid eu intervention
"Tusk admits to legal shortcuts designed to reform judiciary ‘in order to avoid EU intervention’"
Mmm... Cherries can give you indigestion?
.
Search: started on wrong foot von der leyens new commission already under fire
"...her proposed new team of European Commissioners on Tuesday – but some of the choices have already attracted criticisms over possible conflicts of interest, far-right ties and revolving doors."
.
Search: brussels playbook buyers remorse in europes capitals
Misleading MEP's .
"She then walked into the press briefing room and delivered a PowerPoint with each commissioner-designate’s photo and proposed title."
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And there is a political willingness to Rejoin !
.
Why does the UK (or any other nation) need another level of corruption and malfeasance above that which the UK has already?
.

2. How I spent mine... , Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 09:27:

As one of the few who correctly intuited, prior to the Brexit vote, that we would continue to be affected by the world's largest trading bloc, regardless whether we left or stayed: therefore, I spent my summer holidays celebrating the much anticipated & highly predictable Tory defeat.
Correction:
"Unlike the US, where the people decide who will be their President," is not an entirely true statement. The electoral college is the decider; people merely participate in this subversion of the people's true choice - the "popular vote".

3. Gazzablack , Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 09:52:

2, HISM
.
Ah yes, RCEP the world's largest trading bloc.
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I notice that that in the second rate bloc called the EU that the Dutch government has formerly asked for a migration opt-out from the EU, stating they need to be in charge of their own asylum policy again.
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I hope they enjoy being told "no" but please keep paying for the privilege.

4. Sparky , Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 12:16:

Still campaigning to leave!

5. NH , Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 13:25:

2. HISM, "the world's largest trading bloc"
The EU is not the world's largest trading block, by any conventional measurement it's the third largest. The point Facts4EU are making (above) is it's not a "trading bloc" it's a unique "political union" which restricts your economy and your exports to the rest of the world. The most important question does a "political union" produce superior results. Unfortunately it's economic performance is terrible when compared to the major growth areas of the world. The EU admit this and they accept that they are no longer competitive in many areas ! Their problem is finding solutions that all EU countries will accept.
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The most important issue for the UK is, is our trade with the UK valuable ? When we were in the EU we had stagnant levels of exports to the EU and a huge growing deficit. Not only is this wealth destroying it's not sustainable in the long term. The EU represents approx. 17% of the world economy and 14% of world trade. The opportunity for the UK is to have better terms to target the 83% of the world economy and 86% of world trade that is not the EU.
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Since leaving the EU the UK has moved from being the world's 7th largest exporter to the world's 4th largest exporter. However it will not surprise me if the Labour party's conflicting policies put a stop to this and send the UK into recession.

6. Gazzablack , Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 16:48:

4, sparkless
.
Counting our blessings Hiroo, counting our blessings..

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