Don’t bother voting in the European elections

“Vote in the European election!” read a homemade banner that pro-European activists hoisted above one of Berlin’s busiest thoroughfares last week. “The far right is on the rise. Democracy is at stake!”

No, it isn’t.

In fact, European democracy might be better served by not voting and putting an end to the charade.

That this sounds like sacrilege testifies to the success of the Parliament’s lobby in pulling the wool over our eyes.

But the propaganda doesn’t change the fact that the European Parliament isn’t a parliament in any conventional sense of the word.

It may boast the trappings of a real parliament, with not just one but two chambers, in Strasbourg and Brussels, not to mention its countless committees and subcommittees, bloated staffs and labyrinthine bureaucracy. Europe’s Potemkin parliament has even had its share of graft and scandal, just like a real parliament.

Despite all that, the European Parliament doesn’t possess the one power that is the lifeblood of any real legislature: the power to legislate. Proposing laws is the sole privilege of the European Commission.

Its defenders might argue that the Parliament does have the power to offer amendments and revisions to laws in talks with the Council and the Commission. But the “trilogue” (it sounds like something on offer at a Belgian swingers’ club, but actually refers to the negotiating process between the Parliament and the Council with the Commission) is only a weak substitute for real legislative might.

The Parliament is ultimately the slave of the Commission, which itself is slave to the Council, i.e. the bloc’s member states. EU Parliament debates may be full of sound and fury, but in the end, its deputies hew to their national consensus on the big issues.

When that consensus changes, such as on the European Green Deal package of climate measures, the Parliament follows suit. Consider the recent decision to phase out the internal combustion engine in 2035: After years of talks, the decision was endorsed last year by the Commission, the Parliament and the Council.

Now, however, Germany’s center-right CDU, which is likely to regain power next year, is campaigning against phasing out polluting cars, putting the future of the switch to electric in question. Under the slogan “Germany must remain the land of the automobile,” the CDU recently launched an (unscientific) online poll with one question: “Do you support the demand to reverse the ban of fuel-power cars?” (Strictly speaking, under an EU plan agreed last year, the internal combustion engine won’t be “banned;” instead, starting in 2035, car buyers will only be allowed to register new vehicles that are “carbon neutral.”)

In the final analysis, what the EU Parliament wants won’t matter if Germany, Europe’s most powerful country, decides it no longer supports the move.

Such episodes explain why many voters, even if they don’t understand how the Parliament works, do grasp that they can safely ignore it. The sad thing is that they’re right.

Keeping up appearances

The Parliament’s main function is to create the appearance of a vibrant democracy in action.

…

Beyond that, the Parliament, which is dominated by the same parties that hold sway in national governments, functions essentially as a rubber stamp.

That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of political theater. With more than 700 deputies (the coming Parliament will have 720) representing over 200 parties across 27 countries, debate can be colorful, to be sure. Remember the Slovak MEP who released a dove into the chamber in April? Or the Bulgarian MEP who was accused of performing a Hitler salute in February 2022?

But the reality-TV aspect aside, it’s difficult to understand what purpose the institution serves. Not even Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seems to take the Parliament very seriously — how else to explain that she’s running for a second term as president during the EU election without actually running for a seat?

Von der Leyen knows that to win reelection as the Council’s presumptive nominee, she doesn’t need the support of a broad swathe of Europeans, just a majority of the Parliament. That’s why she focused her campaign on backroom meetings with national party leaders and the deputies whose support she needs.

In one such meeting in Bulgaria last week, with center-right leader Boyko Borissov and members of his party, von der Leyen agreed to further scale back the Green Deal, according to two people who were present. The thing is, that package of environmental reforms was the centerpiece of her first-term agenda.

The fact she can reverse course without going directly to the voters or even engaging in a public debate about Europe’s course on climate policy illustrates what a farce the Parliament really is — and an expensive one at that.

Money for nothing

For an organization that serves no discernible democratic purpose, the Parliament ain’t cheap. Its deputies, or MEPs, earn some €120,000 per year, more than triple the average salary of EU citizens.

Another big outlay is Strasbourg, where MEPs convene for a few days each month to keep the French happy at a cost of more than €100 million per year.

…

Unless Europe bites the bullet and grants the Parliament meaningful legislative power (and reforms the election process with transnational lists of candidates instead of a potpourri of niche national parties), it will remain a backwater and something of a joke.

This weekend will mark the only time in the coming five years that many national media outlets in Europe devote real attention to the affairs of the European Parliament. Even then, it may only be to warn that the rise of far-right parties could jeopardize the institution’s future.

While meant to sound like a threat, that would actually be a reprieve.

CONTINUE READING HERE

Featured image source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20240604-1

************