We Want Our EU Back

After a long, sleepy summer, the feeling we are left with about EU is that of an old column clock, loudly but steadily ticking and dinging as time goes by. What happens? Next to nothing - new politicians, all the same. New alliances, all the same. New commissioners, all the same. New policies, nothing. But we see a growing bureaucracy and more people, meetings and noise from all this doing nothing.

Viktor Orbán takes over the circulating, rotating chairmanship. He immediately embarks on an obviously planned, but surprising to everyone else, tour to all the other dictators and wannabe dictators of the world. He enjoys being seen as president of the EU, though he is not. At least, he has no mandate to conduct foreign policy on behalf of the Union. But the others see him as such, and he takes advantage of it. Nothing happens.

Viktor Orbán is president, sure yes he is. But EU has so many presidents that nobody knows who is in charge. It is a complete confusion and it is completely unacceptable. We all think, this farce must end. But nothing happens.

The different foreign representatives are busy doing nothing. At least nothing that makes a difference that we can understand. They are allowed to run out and say things that the Commission or the Council are not agreeing with. And nothing happens.

Another president, the chair of the Commission, is re-elected. Is she? Though she is appointed. She is the most powerful woman in the world, and she has never been elected to anything in the EU. Claiming that she is a president with accountability to the peoples of the EU is a complete untruth. Once she faces the election process we can talk about it. But nothing happens.

The chair of the Commission has several unfulfilled promises that she never mentions. A lot of promises. Support for small businesses, a million grenades for Ukraine, more openness in the workings of EU, especially the Commission. Still unfulfilled, and no concrete plans to do something about it. Nothing happens.

Extreme amounts of effort and time go into appointing, selecting for fancy positions with very fancy titles like president of (whatever) - from the launch of the election campaign until now, nothing has happened. It’s been a long summer. Nothing happens.

We know that the various presidents can produce long lists of what they have accomplished. Or their appointed personnel can. Please spare us for that inutile effort.

In response to the criticism, what everyone will like to see is the following.

Abandon all the fancy and useless titles such as president. Foreign affairs chief servant is better, CS for short, with emphasis on servant. These are servants of the people, like ministers, but cannot even be called ministers. Those who cannot be addressed by an unequivocal and meaningful title - back into the rank and file of public servants, under the guidance of a office master, not some other fancy president.

This session in EP used for one and only one thing. Eliminate all unnecessary, bureaucratic and meaningless legislation. Slashing whole areas that are better solved by the member states. Actually using the subsidiarity principle, use all their time awake to make things simpler and serve the peoples of the Union. Then perhaps they can do something useful. And hopefully earn the confidence of all of us before they start to make new plans.

Each and every Parliamentarian and servant find a new purpose and meaning with their life in the EU reality. Cut down on all duplication and all inutile efforts to regulate nothing really. Nothing that could not better be regulated by the member states. Each working week, they report progress to their peers and publish a nice list of their achievements for all of us to see.

Full transparency of all doings. Hold much fewer meetings, shorter and only if absolutely necessary and with a clear and well defined purpose. Whenever there is a meeting, if at all, it must have a clearly stated goal. After the meeting, publish the result, goal met or not. Written minutes and documents published simultaneously with the proceedings in the parliament and Commission. That is real transparency. Nothing secret. Nothing.