The EU is a democracy, and it has a government

On 29 August, Iceland will hold a referendum on whether to start talks on joining the European Union. Ahead of that vote, the Conservative Brexiteer and former member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan wrote an op-ed last week telling Icelanders they have a great arrangement being in the European Economic Area, having access to the EU’s single market without having to be in the EU, and they should stick with that rather than joining.

Nowhere in the piece does he mention that as part of the single market, Iceland has to follow EU laws except in agriculture and fisheries policies. Nor does he mention that, because they aren’t an actual member but rather a pseudo-member, Iceland doesn’t get to vote on these laws. And that’s because, like all Brexiteers, he approaches everything under the false pretext that the EU is not a democracy and laws are dictated by bureaucrats. So if the laws are dictated by bureaucrats either way, why bother being a full member?

Except that’s not true. The EU has a bicameral legislature made up of a directly-elected lower house (the EU Parliament) representing the people and an upper house made up of national ministers representing the governments (just like the Bundesrat in Germany, or the US Senate until a century ago). The Commission may propose laws, but the legislature fundamentally changes them and nothing becomes law without their approval.

Dave Keating@DaveKeating

"Iceland already has access to the EU single market, so what would joining the bloc actually offer?" It's funny how these Brexiteers who claim to care so much about democracy are telling Iceland they should stick with an arrangement in which they have to follow EU laws without

11:55 AM · Aug 16, 2026 · 9.08K Views

14 Replies · 51 Reposts · 202 Likes

I decided to make this video from Barcelona explaining two things that are not well-understood: that the EU is a democracy and that it has a government. I saw the degree to which people don’t understand this in the reaction to an op-ed published this week in The Guardian by Alberto Alemanno explaining how the far right has entered the EU’s government. Many people seemed confused by the idea because they don’t think of the EU as having a government. And, particularly in the UK where the issue of the EU has become a polemic subject with many misunderstandings, I saw many pro-EU people aghast at the idea that the EU could be bad. But as I noted on BlueSky, the EU is not innately good or bad. Just like a country, it depends on what government is running it. The EU has been governed by the centre-right European Peoples Party for two decades, and recently that party has entered into an ad-hoc alliance with the far right. As Alemanno explains in the op-ed, this has resulted in a situation where the far right is calling the shots without even technically being in the governing coalition: a situation very similar to what’s happening in many European national governments now.

What makes Hannan’s argument all the more absurd is that Brexiteers told British referendum voters they would have single market access after Brexit, but then once it became clear they would need to follow EU law in order to get it (without being able to vote on it), they said this would be unconscionable and the UK ended up with a hard Brexit. So apparently such a humiliating arrangement is good enough for Iceland, but not for a mighty empire like Britain.

Incidentally, Hannan also doesn’t mention that as an EEA member Iceland already pays for its EU single market access. He pretends that its EU budget contribution as a member state would be an entirely new cost. I honestly don’t know if these types of op-eds are the result of ignorance or malice, but the end result is the same: the public is misled.

Here are some of the links I mention in the video:

Why do Europeans keep voting conservative?

·

March 10, 2024

In one of this year's many elections, voters are expected to vote in the majority for a party that's been in power for two decades. Where is this strange democratic oddity? Right here in Europe.

Ceuta exposes Europe's chronic lack of unity

·

Aug 3

An EU member state was attacked, with migrants used as weapons in a seemingly orchestrated manoeuvre. Giorgia Meloni and other leaders across Europe chose to blame the country being attacked.

It's Meloni's Europe, and we're just living in it

·

Feb 17

The Italian PM has pressured the EU into participating in Trump's "Board of Peace" as an observer. Amid a leadership vacuum at the top, Meloni is dictating Europe's Atlanticist right-wing direction.

How the EU works (and doesn't)

·

April 3, 2024

The way EU laws are made is actually fairly simple, but it's in many peoples' vested interest to make it seem impossibly complicated.