Wake Up! We the people must choose President of Europe

First the good news.

Tony Blair, First President of the European Council, is not going to happen. Phew.

Now the bad news, and I personally apologise about this because I should have noticed this 2 years ago and done something about it but didn't.

I'm talking about the Lisbon treaty, and the President of Europe thing.

The thing is, the first President is to be appointed by the European Council.

Appointed.

Twenty seven (27) people who happen to be national leaders will choose who is to be the First President.

The First President is not going to be elected by us, the people.
We don't have a say in the matter.
They don't even have the grace to give us a single candidate election, as, say, in Zimbabwe.

We the people of Europe get no Carter-Rucking say in the Carter-Rucking election.

Even our elected representative in the European Parliament doesn't get a say in the matter.

They're just going to appoint el Presidente.
Well, C-R that for a game of soldiers. I'm off to join the call for a democratic Europe*.

(Again, I'm sorry, I should have noticed, and complained before, but there are just so many other things going on. I did propose years ago that the Greens should propose that the people of Europe should be invited to vote on the principles of the Constitution, broken down into vote-sized chunks. International Committee asked me to put it to a Norwegian MEP, and there the matter died).

Let's face it, it is easy to go to sleep, faced with the detail of EU politics. It has lulled us all to sleep. But now it is time to WAKE UP!! to the democratic deficit, a kind of political black hole that that is forming like a tiny, voracious worm in the heart of the rose.

We must stop this now.
In a democracy, the will of the people is the ultimate authority. It is right, just and natural that we should choose the leader.

We must demand our democratic right to be the ones to elect the President of the European Council.

Right?


*Handbrake Tendency: "But there are reasons not have a popular election. It would bring a Presidential style rather than a Parliamentary style to the EU".
RL: So how come the Parliament has no say in the appointment of el Primo Presidente then? Eh?

Handbrake Tendency: "But we might end up with someone like Bliar or Bush. Or Burlesquone.
RL: That is a good argument for saying that there should be no elections at all. Yes, people can be fooled by the media into electing a Bush, but nothing is without risk, and also you cant fool all the people all of the time. Praise democracy, and pass the ballot box.