On the sclerosis

When the EU was formed there were roughly as many countries as there are areas of legitimate public policy. So, give each country someone in charge of one of those areas. Call them Commissioners, the things they control Directorates General and when lumped together The Commission can be like a Civil Service layer as most member states have.

This is, and was, grand.

However there are now 28 - soon to be 27 - member states. There are simply not 27, let alone 28, different areas of public policy. But each country still wants a Commissioner, and each much run a Directorate General.

So each issue that in most member states would be looked at by a single department fall within the competency (I use the term loosely) of several Directorates General. Each of these wants to be in charge, of course; and all the people doing the work have career structures predicated on them being the ones who made the difference.

So everything takes multiples of the time and resource it should do, even before you start looking at governance for decisions and so on.

There have been moves to streamline things, but very timid ones. They need to look much more radically at governance than they ever have, really.

And - entirely separate - the whole taking Parliament to Strasbourg every Friday (at enormous cost) because otherwise the French would sulk? Really?

Again, I'm a dyed in the wool Remainer. Despite all the above it's clearly in our economic interest to stay in the EU, at least in my view. Many continental "old Europe" countries have a much more emotional attachment to the EU than we have: for all the privations we suffered in the world wars we were never invaded; some argue that's one reason for it, others that our national character is simply towards the pragmatic end of the scale. Of course the more Eastern, new-accession countries have a different view again.

Posted By: Old Man on March 23rd 2019 at 12:51:15

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