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EU Floats Canada Becoming the Bloc's First 'Associate Member'

83 points · 170 comments · helsinkiandrew

  1. gizajob · · focus · HN ↗

    [dead]

    1. phoronixrly · · focus · HN ↗
      You keep spreading this, but the eurocommssion president gets appointed by the European Council, which consists of democratically elected heads of state.

      She is no less democratically elected than the prime minister of a parliamentary republic... They get appointed by the democratically elected parliament.

      1. ExoticPearTree · · focus · HN ↗
        > You keep spreading this, but the eurocommssion president gets appointed by the European Council, which consists of democratically elected heads of state.

        It does not matter who elects the EU commission, there needs to be a popular vote across the EU for every commissioner job and the EU Commission head. What we have today in EU is pure BS: every country gets a commissioner based on that country's influence within the bloc and every time a new country joins the EU, a new commissioner role just happens to be created.

        I want to be able to choose from a number of candidates who should run the EU, not the prime minister or the president of a member country.

        Everybody who holds even a little power in the EU construct needs to be voted by EU citizens, not appointed by who knows who.

        This second- or third-hand "democracy" is not a democracy at all.

        1. scrollaway · · focus · HN ↗
          > there needs to be a popular vote across the EU for every commissioner job and the EU Commission head.

          Your talking points are misinformed and pretty ridiculous which makes me think you're a troll rather than having a faithful argument. But on the off chance you are trying to have a real discussion: The Council and Parliament both get elected and the commission cannot do anything without them, so it's not like the system is not democratic.

          I don't see the US asking for their attorney general or supreme court justices to be democratically elected. At some point you have to trust that the people you actually elect will appoint people who know what they're doing.

          Just because there's someone in the chain you're not doing a round of elections on doesn't make the system bad. You need the system to have agency at some point.

          1. gizajob · · focus · HN ↗
            Everyone in the EU has a smartphone in their pocket and nowadays an afternoon of vibe coding could push out a platform for electing the top EU officials to every single smartphone, for people to pick who they want to govern them.

            The solution is potentially as simple as that and still they prefer not to have actual properly-democratic elections.

            1. scrollaway · · focus · HN ↗
              Peak 2026 hn to think vibe coding a mobile app for elections is going to “solve” a problem they don’t understand. Do you even hear yourself?
              1. phoronixrly · · focus · HN ↗
                What a horrible day to have eyes...
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