Europe, divided it stands.

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Originally posted by NYCTrancefan I am astounded that no one has yet made mention of the E.U. election disaster for the ruling parties in practically all 25 E.U. member countries. Domestic policies gave a good asskicking to the likes of France and Germany, while in the U.K. Iraq as well as domestic circumstances, the former of which I believe was more of an impact causing a weakened Labour party.

Yes, it is a sad testament to the flaws of democracy that people, which cannot distinguish between domestic politics and the role of the EU-parlament, are given the opportunity to decide the future constellation of EU-parlament. Technocracy now!

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Originally posted by NYCTrancefan I am interested to get the feel from many Europeans on the board as to the domestic reaction to the elections and how it played out, not including of course the record low voter turnout which makes one wonder about the E.U.

I'm currently participating in a summer course with people from all of Scandinavia and the Baltic countries (new EU members). Basically the election came and went with little notice, except from one very enthusiastic Estonian. He was mostly interested in the low voter turnout, though (of which the record is held by Estonia I guess), and secondly in the number of members seats alloted to the individual countries. I would suspect that the status of the election for the EU-parlament is somewhat like those for the Senate and Congress in the US?

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Originally posted by NYCTrancefan Call it disullionment, apathy, protests but the Eurocrats seem to be more interested in forcing Brussels on other nations as opposed to the people's enthusiasm for the E.U. governance. Just my sense though.

I blame the complexity of the EU working process. Relatively few people have the surplus of energy required to get familar with it. Unlike the US, we do not currently have much EU stuff in the curriculums in public schools, which is probably a mistake.

Last edited by trancaholic on Jun-14-2004 at 14:21

i think one reason for the low election turnout is that the parliament doesn't have any big power.. but that will probably change with the new consitution, but yeah guess not everyone are that aware of it... and as trancaholic pointed out, people don't know that much about the EU, so they don't care (yes that's stupid..)

it scares me tho that so many EU sceptic parties got such succsess. i have not seen any results for europe as a whole yet, but in sweden the EU sceptic party got 14% of the votes... and i think UKIP in england got a good result too... and the same goes for the whole EU... sad imo =/ but i guess it will take some time before EU will get more integrated...

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Originally posted by St_Andrew it scares me tho that so many EU sceptic parties got such succsess. i have not seen any results for europe as a whole yet, but in sweden the EU sceptic party got 14% of the votes... and i think UKIP in england got a good result too... and the same goes for the whole EU...

In Denmark the sceptics suffered a huge setback. I ascribe it to the fact that our previous PM, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, was running for the first time. He runs for the social democratic party, whose supporters mostly are EU sceptics. This time familiarity apparently outshone xenophobia.

The reason the turnout was so low includes the following reasons:

Euro 2004
Grand Prix of Montreal
24 Hours at Le Mans

But seriously, I'm glad to see the skeptics in the UK and in other nations got the recognition that they deserve.

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Originally posted by imokruok The reason the turnout was so low includes the following reasons: Euro 2004 Grand Prix of Montreal 24 Hours at Le Mans

lol that may actually have *something* to do with it

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But seriously, I'm glad to see the skeptics in the UK and in other nations got the recognition that they deserve.

why?

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Originally posted by St_Andrew why?

Because I personally feel as though France and Germany try to run the EU as their own personal fiefdom, other nations' opinions be damned. These results will put a brake on the integration that is apparently causing disillusionment among a fair number of people.

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FLUSHED THE JOHNS!

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Originally posted by imokruok Because I personally feel as though France and Germany try to run the EU as their own personal fiefdom, other nations' opinions be damned. These results will put a brake on the integration that is apparently causing disillusionment among a fair number of people.

That'll be why the Pres is Irish and the Vice Pres is Greek then?

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quote:

Originally posted by imokruok Because I personally feel as though France and Germany try to run the EU as their own personal fiefdom, other nations' opinions be damned. These results will put a brake on the integration that is apparently causing disillusionment among a fair number of people.

yeah, somewhat true, but they are two of the most significant countries in europe, so i'ts kinda natural really and it's not like the rest of the countries don't have anything to say about it...

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Originally posted by Dervish That'll be why the Pres is Irish and the Vice Pres is Greek then?

Which as I'm sure you know makes very little difference. Because the figureheads rotate so much, those positions come with very little power - 6 months is not enough time to expand the power of the office. The true power comes from all of the permanent staff and the Commission, who are overwhelmingly pro-integrationist.

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FLUSHED THE JOHNS!

Having tried to get more information via the EU website and it being difficult (due to the size and nature of it) to get to the information I wanted in the language I wanted. I recon the union is too clunky and too complicated. I'm half joking and half serious. It made me think it must be too complicated to govern effectively.

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