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U13736296

Listed below are comments made by U13736296 between Thursday, 12th November 2009 and Friday, 18th December 2009 (21 Hours Ago) .

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Climate change and big figures 1:04pm on 18 Dec 2009 #11. "All known life in the Universe = dead."

Oh don't worry there will be plenty of life left on Earth, not sure if humans are included.
Prizes and good intentions 12:51pm on 10 Dec 2009 #20. "Incidentally a little bit of Nobel trivia: the reason there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics is because Nobels wife had an affair with a mathematician."

Alfred Nobel never got married...
Europe's top jobs 10:52am on 01 Dec 2009 #257. DistantTraveller
"In reality, there really is no mechanism for ordinary citizens to boot out a commissioner."

There is, it's not used but I'll be honest I don't think it will work either.

"As you say, at best all a citizen could do is put pressure on his/her own national government to try to remove someone."

In my mind, at least when I wrote my suggestion, during national elections a party would have nominee(s) for the commisioner and simply let the citizens decide, on the ballot box, who they want to see in Brussels. And if the party gets in the government it will replace the old commissioner with the commissioner the citizens want.

Would it work? As I said it wouldn't simply because the national issues always completely overshadow any 'European' issues (as seen at the European elections) and majority of the citizens don't really give a damn about Europe as seen at the low turn out in European elections.

"The commission should be neutered - like a cat. The commission should be expressly prohibited from having any agenda of its own"

I disagree with this part, the commission these days is nothing more then a secretariat of the council. It's been 15 years since the last strong commissioner (Delors) and it doesn't look like it will change any time soon. It's the member states who are full control in the EU and certainly not the commission.

"Commissioners should be appointed on the basis of their administrative skills. It should not be regarded as a 'reward' for politicians past their sell-by date who need to be put out to pasture."

Something we can agree on, and this doesn't just apply to commissioner but also the European parliament. Sadly enough every competent politician and administrator are kept in the national arena (for good reason), leaving the retired or the 'undesirable' (third rate politicians) for Brussels. There are some exceptions, but they're in the absolute minority.
Europe's top jobs 5:02pm on 30 Nov 2009 #248 DistantTraveller "If ordinary citizens are not happy with a member of the Commission, there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. (You say this is a lie)."

Technically speaking Me_rijn is correct, there is a democratic mechanism for the ordinary citizen to get rid of a commissioner and I'm not talking about the European parliament either.
Consider this: a commissioner can be replaced by a national government at any time they want. So there is a time when an ordinary citizens can complain to their government and show their disappointment in the government's choice of commissioner: national elections.

Of course this has some flaws notably I don't recall any national election being won (or lost) due to the poor choice of commissioner... in fact I don't recall the choice of commissioner being an issue at all.
Furthermore another flaw is that if a British citizen doesn't like the Italian commissioner there's nothing he can do about it but then again it's not much different when a British citizen doesn't like Berlusconi (Italian prime-minister) and lastly this doesn't apply to the high representative and commissioner president.

As for the commissioner president, this one is quite simple who ever gets to be the largest party in the European parliaments gets to have his candidate as commissioner president. This one needs improving though e.g. all European parties need to have a candidate, in the last election only the EPP had a candidate the rest of them didn't...
Franco-German power 8:18pm on 25 Nov 2009 There are rumours floating around that Sarkozy used his veto against Juncker, perceived as Merkel's favourite for the President job. Do you know if these rumours are true mr.Hewitt?
Can Blazevic work his magic for Bosnia? 11:01pm on 18 Nov 2009 "Can Blazevic work his magic for Bosnia?"

And the answer is: no. Shame that we won't to see them in the world cup. :(
Who wants to be chairman of the EU Council? 09:33am on 18 Nov 2009 Actually president also means chairman in English although I believe this meaning has been lost thanks to the other, more prominent, meaning of president: 'head of executive' or 'head of state'.
France, not Ferguson's successor, should be Blanc's future 10:40am on 17 Nov 2009 "So if Blanc decides to stay on home soil, who could take over from Ferguson?"

How about Carlos Queiroz?
Which names in the EU hat? 08:38am on 13 Nov 2009 #80.
Actually in several European languages president means chairman or speaker for example the chairman of the French national assembly is called "président de l’Assemblée nationale", chairman of the German Bundesrat is called "Bundesratspräsident" (in fact German has three unelected presidents)

This meaning is lost in English, mind you that doesn't stop the media from hyping up the position. ;)
Which names in the EU hat? 10:02am on 12 Nov 2009 #26. Mathiasen wrote: "I have difficulties in believing it: BBC continues its campaigning for Blair."

Didn't you know? BBC stands for Blair's Broadcasting Corporation.

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