Is this really how the EU wishes to be viewed?

My posting on this blog's forerunner "Ironies" of 2nd August 2003, titled "Democracy, Tyranny, Switzerland, Britain and the EU" posted almost exactly four years ago seems now worth re-reading and is therefore linked from here. Scroll to the beginning of the linked month. On that same theme thee Wall Street Journal today has the following article available to subscribers, linked here.

Disproportionately Undemocratic

By Roland Vaubel

Word Count: 996

The European Union's democratic deficit is notorious. Its parliament is probably the world's only elected chamber without the right to initiate legislation. It does not even have a say over all the laws passed by the Council, which is composed of government representatives. The right to propose new legislation rests with the Commission, a body of appointed bureaucrats. The national parliaments have basically no say over EU matters. Organized interest groups, on the other hand, are more powerful at the European than at the national level -- most of all the agricultural lobby. Referendums are rare; when they do take ...

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