I voted leave, I am also not racist. Immigration was not my biggest bug bear about the EU. My biggest reason, though not limited to, was democracy. In recent times up to 60% of our laws have been made by the EU, by unelected officials. This is not democracy.
The EU’s law-making process is fundamentally undemocratic.
There are four key institutions of the EU: the European Commission, European Parliament, European Council and the Court of Justice of the EU. Each institution supposedly represents separate interests. The Commission represents the EU, the Parliament represents the people, the Council represents the Governments of each Member State and the Court interprets the law.
The EU Commission is the guardian of the treaties and enforces EU law. More importantly, this means it is the Government of Europe which has the sole right to propose the laws which increasingly encroach on our lives here in Britain.
The Commission is made up of 28 UNELECTED commissioners, who cannot be held to account. Each commissioner has a specific policy area in which to create laws. The Commission has a President (currently Jean-Claude Juncker); unlike the other 27 commissioners he is personally elected by the European Parliament, however his was the only name on the ballot paper, not exactly democratic. The Commission is advised by the Directorate General, which along with the Commission is heavily lobbied. Once the Commission proposes an EU law, this proposal is taken to the Parliament.
Secondly, the Parliament is made up of 751 MEPs who are elected by the people in EU Member States every five years in elections. National parties arrange themselves into European groups of similar parties throughout Europe. It also has a President (currently Martin Schulz) who was voted in by the Parliament, but once again he was the only candidate. Theoretically, the Parliament has the ability to remove the Commission; however the Parliament has never successfully been able to remove it - even when the Commission has been full of corrupt cronies. The Parliament didn’t even remove the commission of 2004 to 2009 which was full of questionable characters. This Commission included Siim Kallas the Anti-Fraud Commissioner who was given this role despite being charged with fraud, abuse of power and providing false information after £4.4million disappeared while he was head of Estonia’s national bank.
This is not a Parliament in any real sense, as they have no right to propose laws. Instead it is a façade, created to make the EU look democratic, rather than give the public a choice over those who makes their laws. The Parliament does vote and can make amendments on laws proposed by the Commission, but the Commission must accept any of the amendments proposed for the changes to become effective, showing where the power lies.
Additionally, once something becomes an EU law, the Parliament has no ability to propose a change to this law. All the power is given to the Commission. It is clear the public’s elected representatives do not matter in the EU. Once the Parliament approves an EU proposal, it is sent to the European Council.
The European Council - sometimes called The Council - is the meeting of the Member States. It is called the European Council when the leaders of each Member State are in attendance, and The Council when it’s the ministers for the policy area being discussed attending. This is the final hurdle any European proposal has to pass in order to become law. Decision-making at this stage is done almost entirely by Qualified Majority Voting. This means the UK Government can vote against a proposal and as long as it receives enough votes from the other Member States it becomes law in the UK anyway. It is interesting to note that the UK has voted against laws in these sessions 72 times, and 72 times we lost. The EU commission is a ‘club’ to push through laws which would be rejected by national Parliaments. The UK only has a veto to prevent EU laws impacting the UK in a very minor number of areas. If the European Council/Council approves proposals, they become EU law. They will be in the form of EU regulations or directives. If they are regulations the new EU law applies to all Member States without any of those states having to pass legislation in their own home Parliaments. If they are directives, the national Parliaments are forced to change their national laws within a specific time limit to comply with EU law - whether they want to or not.
Finally, the Court of Justice of the EU is supposed to interpret EU laws to ensure they comply with the EU treaties. Unfortunately, it does not do this. It happily ignores the treaties when it wants to if the EU is pushing its own federalist agenda. This is not a court like we have in this country; it is a kangaroo court wilfully ignoring the rule of law, as it did with the bailouts which should have been deemed illegal. The treaties clearly stated bailouts were illegal, but as the bailouts helped to prop up the failing Eurozone project, the EU court allowed them anyway.
Then there is the money, out of all the money we sent to the EU we got about half back in the form of subsidies and grants. The rest the EU keep to spend how they like, and for which they are unaccountable. For example our meps get paid around 60k, on top of this they can claim 40k in expenses without having to produce one reciept. Each year the EU spends millions relocating their offices for 4 days. These are just two examples of the monumental ways in which the EU is not accountable for their spending of OUR money, and how it wastes it.
This is akin to someone for example taking £350 off you, feeling sorry for you and giving you half back but telling you how you can spend it.
This is not democracy. We will be better off outside the EU, where we can make our own laws, decide where our money is spent, not have to foot the bill of future EU bailouts, make our own trade deals and immigration policies.
The EU have been incredibly arrogant in their treatment of the UK, ignoring our concerns and issues. If they were that bothered about us being in the EU they would have been more open to the reforms that Cameron was requesting. They either thought we wouldnt hold a referendum on EU membership, or they thought the remain camp would win.
They do not work for the benefit of all its member states. You only have to look at Greece, and the impact the EU has had on them for the proof of this. Greece is in a terrible state due to the Austerity measures imposed by the EU. The EU doesnt care that a direct effect of its policies are having, with adults and children in Athens being diagnosed with malnutrition, parents can no longer afford to vaccinate their children, hospitals are missing basic painkillers and bed sheets amongst other things.
In the future I am in no doubt the country will breath a sigh of relief that we left when we could.