On January 16, a representative of Global Research Center, Nana Devdariani stated that the EU is a bureaucratic system that has not been elected by anyone, so the EU pushes its own will towards its member and non-member states.
Nana Devdariani, Global Research Center: “There is a huge discontent not only in the United States, but in Europe, too, because the Brussels bureaucracy has not been elected by anyone! There people are not there via people’s mandate and it turns out that they stand above states and push their own will towards the member and, quite often, non-member states, as well.”
The given statement is groundless, due to the following facts:
1. Decision making system. The EU has a hybrid of supranational and inter-government systems of decision making.
- European Parliament – the only directly elected body of the EU, represents the 500-million population of the EU via 751 MEPs. Plays a crucial role in electing the President of the European Commission. The European Parliament shares budgetary and legislative authority with the Council of the European Union.
- European Commission – executive branch of the EU responsible for formulating and implementing legislative initiatives. The European Commission monitors agreements and everyday activities of the EU.
- Council of the European Union – consists of ministers of all member states of the EU which share budgetary and legislative authority with the European Parliament.
- European Council – a strategic body defining the EU policy composed of the heads of government or heads of state of the member countries.
See infographic about the EU institutions.
2. The European Parliament is the only international organization, members of which are elected through direct universal vote – The European Parliament, the legislative body of the EU, gets elected every five years, directly by the citizens of the 28 member states and for conducting their interests.
The system of the elections varies by countries, however, they are conducted in the same period and the results are published simultaneously. Voting takes place by proportional rule and this method is special in the sense that it maximally considers the rights of small parties. Number of places for each country is determined in accordance with the number of population of the member countries.
3. Authority of the European Parliament – the parliament, elected by the citizens of the EU member states, has the following main functions:
- Review and approve laws together with the Council of the EU.
- Review and approve the budget and monitor its expenditures together with the Council of the EU.
- Approve the composition of the European Commission together with the European Council.
- Monitor the extent to which the work of other institutions of the EU are working democratically (especially the European Commission) checking their activities.
- The European Parliament is also entitled to dismiss the entire composition of the European Commission, including the President.
4. Lisbon Treaty strengthens national parliaments and provides opportunity to control the ongoing processes in the EU.
According to the 12th article of the Agreement on the European Union, the legal bill presented by the European Commission to the European Parliament should also be sent to the national parliaments. In case of a disagreement, through the principle of preliminary warning, national parliaments can express position on the legal bill. Such matter of state provides for better solutions of problematic issues on national, regional or local levels.
The Lisbon Treaty, exactly via strengthening the representative democracy, intends to bring the EU and its citizens closer. The article 11.4 of the Treaty on the European Union is a clear example of the increase in participatory democracy – it allows any million signatories to make the European Commission present a legal bill.
About Nana Devdariani. In 2013, together with Ioseb Archvadze and Maia Chubinashvili, Nana Devdariani founded the “Global research Center”. According to the report of the IDFI’s project damoukidebloba.com, this organization encourages Anti-western sentiments and very often replicates the opinions and analysis of the pro-Russian NGO “Eurasian Institute”. In the report of Media Development Foundation (MDF) – Anti-western Propaganda, Nana Devdariani frequently appears as one of the source of Anti-western sentiments.
In 2016 parliamentary elections, Nana Devdariani is named as the sixth member among top ten members of the election list of “Nino Burjanadze – Democratic movement”.
Nana Devdariani was Public Defender of Georgia during 2000-2003. Before 2003 Rose Revolution, Nana Devdariani was the chairwoman of Central Election Commission during 2003 parliamentary elections.
