Election of the president of the commission

[u/Esteban83550]

Would you like the president of the EU commission to be elected by universal suffrage by every single EU citizen, vote no if you would like other ways of voting or not changing the current election

893 votes, 9d ago

447 🟢Yes

167 🟡No, but another way of voting

143 🟡Unsure

136 🔴No, no change needed

[u/MartinBP]

Literally 0 European countries elect their Prime Minister. The entire point is that it's an appointed executive position accountable to parliament. The answer is giving parliament power of initiative, not turning the EC president into an American-style circus.

[u/StephaneiAarhus → u/MartinBP]

Totally, you're so right on that.

[u/loicvanderwiel → u/MartinBP]

There has been one country that attempted the direct election of its Prime Minister, Israël, in 1996, 1999 and 2001. The aim was to produce more stable government (the Prime Minister being more independent from the legislature). In practice (as you can guess by the election dates), that didn't happen.

It doesn't mean the need for more stable leadership does not exist, especially for foreign relations and defence (and credit where credit is due, the US system does tend to provide steady leadership over the its 4-year terms).

The in-between solution is of course the semi-presidential system but that comes with its own issues.

[u/AfonsoFGarcia → u/loicvanderwiel]

Portugal and France are semi-presidential systems. The state of the dying 5th republic with 7 prime ministers during the 2 terms of Macron and the 25 governments Portugal had since 1976 should tell you everything about the stability that system brings.

[u/loicvanderwiel → u/AfonsoFGarcia]

As I said, it comes with its own issues. France remains stable because the Prime Minister (and his government) are ultimately playthings to be discarded or modified at the whim of the President. It's not supposed to be that way but that's what it is at the moment.

I don't know enough about the Portuguese situation at the moment

[u/black3rr → u/MartinBP]

exactly.. the main problem with EU democracy is not with how EC members and president are elected.

A bigger problem is that to remove them requires two thirds of votes in the parliament. And that parliament members can't themselves propose or draft EU laws, only the commission can. And that somehow if EC proposes something, it doesn't require half of parliament to agree for it to pass, but half of parliament to disagree for it not to pass (like in the Chat Control situation recently)...

These combined makes it questionable whether EC is truly "accountable to parliament".

[u/Timauris → u/MartinBP]

This! Completely agree.

[u/Acacias2001]

Parlamentary systems are better than presidential ones. Have the commisioner be elected by parliament and only by parliament

[u/Mal_Dun → u/Acacias2001]

I personally found that the Austrian system is a good compromise. The parliament and president are both elected, and the president has less power than in e.g. France but more than e.g. in Germany. You have a quite good balance of power and oversight between both parties.

You start realising how important that becomes when you have a shitty populist government trying to take over control.... Edit: That the president is voted by popular vote normally prevents quite well that the populists take over. It also serves as a feedback for the government. Our presidents were often time from the other political side of the spectrum.

It was created to prevent a new fascist takeover after all.

[u/Juniper_W → u/Mal_Dun]

Yeah but the Commission President functions less like the Austrian President and more like the Austrian prime minister. A real "President of the EU" role doesn't really exist

[u/JBinero → u/Mal_Dun]

The issue is that even symbolic precidencies have a tendency to devolve into presidentialism.

[u/black3rr → u/Acacias2001]

I fully agree, but can the EU be called a "parlamentary system" if simple majority in parlament can't remove the head of EC (two thirds of vote are needed) and simple majority in parlament is not required for a law to pass (like the recent Chat Control 1.0 vote) and the parlament can't even propose laws, only the commission can?

[u/StephaneiAarhus]

no, their position is closest to that of a Prime Minister, and so it should follow : nomination by member states and approbation by Parliament. Or election directly by Parliament.

[u/GalaXion24 → u/StephaneiAarhus]

Nomination by the member states sucks, we should get rid of that and parliament should be the one to select the president and just appoint the commission in general. The Council can rubber stamp it in the end maybe.

[u/rlyjustanyname]

I think a parliament system is better but a presidential system will give people a greater feeling of agency and connection with European politics. So the tradeoff might be worth it. Typically when the prime minister gets elected, they have been running as the leader of their party. It's somewhat toxic when the comissioners are noname nobodies who have simply waited their turn to be awarded this position like VdL.

[u/OneOnOne6211]

Parliamentary systems tend to work better and hold leaders more accountable. They should be elected by parliament, from parliament serving at the pleasure of parliament and the people, imo.

[u/Chichibabin_EU]

I prefer a semipresidential system like in France. An EU President directly elected and an appointed Prime Minister (instead of the President of the Commission)

[u/Ancient_Ordinary6697]

OP, why are you splitting the "No" vote into separate categories?

[u/janat1 → u/Ancient_Ordinary6697]

Because there are different ways on how someone can be elected. The parliament only being able to vote on proposed candidates, but not propose canidates themselves is a mayor difference to a system where the parliament can propose its own canidat(s)

[u/Esteban83550 → u/[deleted]]

I don't have a specific agenda lol but I'm just really curious about what people think about the EU and possible reforms

[u/dideldidum]

The commision president is a bureacrat. unless the commision is reformed to be an actual elected executive, id rather strengthen the decisions of the parliament.

[u/ChimPhun]

No. Just no.

Why would you want to bestow that much power on a single person that's elected by charisma and not competence? Have both old and current history not shown this is a recipe for disaster?

[u/Christine4321]

Having more than one name on the ballot would be a novelty with the EU, so an actual democratic process is for the birds.

[u/JuanSinPan]

Bring democracy to the undemocratic European Commission? Are we crazy?

[u/Ancient_Ordinary6697 → u/[deleted]]

No it wouldn't. I do not want to elect the executive branch. Our elected representatives are the parliamentarians and the commission is accountable to them, as they should be.

Every country who directly elect the executive end up voting for "not the other guy" instead of their preferred candidate. This often requires more than one election round, which is costly and burdensome, without actually making government more democratic.

[u/Esteban83550 → u/Ancient_Ordinary6697]

I can totally understand I just think it's because I have a french bias because here we see electing an executive via an appointment or a parliament extremely undemocratic, and the main thing about the EU commission in France is that it's heavily criticized because it's considered undemocratic while the parliament has a better reputation, I would also like the president of the commission elected via Spitzenkandidaten system it would be good but as a frenchman I prefer the universal suffrage but I think it's a slight bias we have here considering our history with presidents and heavy centralisation.

And of course when I talk about changing the way the president of the commission would be elected it would probably be at a moment when the president would have more power and rather seen as some kind of president than a regular PM or something entirely different

[u/fuckoffyoudipshit]

My idea is to have each member elect a commissioner and for the european parliament to then determine which comissioner does what

[u/Living_Distance6127]

People are stupid, system is good as it is rn. Imagine having people electing someone like trump or taking part in decisions like Brexit

[u/Timauris]

If the commission is a government, the president of the commission should be elected by parliament and dependent on the parliament majority. Why this is not happening in the EU is also in part because the parliament on EU level is dysfunctional. First, the european parliament should be strengthened in order to get legislative initiative and the power to vote the comission out any time. Second, the function of the parliament is hindered greatly by the second chamber - The Council of the EU, which is composed by members of government of member states. So basically member states retain a very big influence on the whole process. What should be significantly reformed thus is not how we elect the president of the commission, but how the Council of the EU is elected and operates.

[u/Esteban83550 → u/[deleted]]

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