Legislative procedure

Last weekend an article on the website of the Slovenian daily business newspaper Finance got my attention. The article summarised a public opinion poll made by Lord Ashcroft Polls about the feeling of Europeans about the UK and Brexit. Besides checking the feeling about Brexit (60% of the interviewed said they want the UK to remain in the EU, while only 10% would like to see the country out), the poll explored which are the EU’s favourite countries and what Europeans most like and dislike of the EU. The results for Slovenia are not a surprise and they show that Slovenians don’t know how the EU works. They also point out that they suffer from a problem common to other Europeans – we want only the benefits the EU brings, while we want the obligations to be carried by others.

(Vir: MZaplotnik/Wikimedia Commons) — (Source: MZaplotnik/Wikimedia Commons)

Preberi več “A Slovenian look over Brussels (and London)”

“The problem is not in the lack of confidence into the EU institutions, but in the decision process, which is not part of the public sphere because of its secrecy”. This tweet is a reaction (for which I am very thankful) to my interview on the e-participation of citizens, that was published on the website of the Institute for electronic participation (InEPA). As 140 characters are not enough to answer to it, I decided to write my answer here. Briefly I can say just the following – the lack of confidence into the EU institutions (and the consequent feeling of impotence) is a consequence of the lack of knowledge of their work and of the decision process. Which is in fact not even so closed as it seems.

@Razprave_EU @greg_87 težava ni v nezaupanju institucijam EU, ampak v procesu odločanja, ki zaradi zaprtosti ni del javnega mnenja.

— Faris Kocan (@FarisKocan) November 20, 2014

Preberi več “(Un)openess of the decisional process on EU level”