the Greece thing is actually an interesting issue

I (and I suspect you do to) think Greece should be given debt relief, otherwise th problem is never going to go away.
The fact that they haven't however is actually evidence of democratic accountability - the lenders (especially Merkel as the main one) have to be accountable to the public for their actions. Imagine the Sun headlines, for example, if debt relief was given - "EU gives OUR money to Greece and doesn't ask for it back".

Incidentally I also agree with you (I think I said this earlier) that the EU does have a democratic deficit. Because for legitimacy from the public a democracy has to be seen to be working democratically. It is not enough for the EU to actually operate democratically - it has to be VISIBLY operating democratically. And it isn't. Some of that is the EU's fault and some of it is not (media coverage etc.). But it definitely needs to be addressed. Tearing the thing up isn't the solution though.

Posted By: mr carra, Jun 23, 08:56:16