Thread by @Niaccurshi

So after the fun of this evening's foray in to just how little people understand* about the EU's democracy, and how it compares to our own, a little thread just detailing these comparisons to try and better inform fellow Brits about what goes on (1/35)

*I also understand that people have good reason to not understand how the EU works. The papers have consistently worked to misinform about it, neither the EU nor the UK does a good enough job in advertising and educating about it, even around actual election times. (2/35)

First.... "Donald Tusk isn't elected". He is elected though. The term is "appointed" I believe, officially, but he is elected by the 28 heads of state currently that make up the EU Council. He becomes the President of the European Council (3/35)

This president role is to the Council of 28 heads of state, what the Theresa May is to the 300+ MPs she is the party leader of in the House of Commons. She's the Tory party's figure head, Tusk is the European Councils' (4/35)

Now the Tory leader *USUALLY* needs to be voted on by the member of the party, but conveniently comparably this time the Tory MPs came to a consensus without ever asking the Tory party members that May should be their Leader (5/35)

Similarly, Tusk became the president of the European Council because the heads of state collectively decided (by a greater majority than were leaning towards May in her process) that Tusk is who they wanted. (6/35)

Essentially the election of Tusk as Euro Council President, and May's selection as the leader and therefore defacto PM, are as close enough to be identical. It is impossible to say Tusk isn't democratically elected if you also believe that May *is* (7/35)

For May, people voted for MPs, those MPs voted for their party leader. For the European Council people voted for* their heads of state, those heads of state voted for Tusk. Tomato/Tomahto. (8/35)

*Yes, the subject of just how much we vote "for" a PM is very much up for debate

Next we have Junker, President of the European Commission.

Quick sidebar, the European Commission is essentially the "Cabinet" of the EU. If the Council is comparable to the leading party in the House of Commons, The Commission is the Cabinet of Ministers we have (9/35)

The claim, often, is that Junker wasn't elected but that he was somehow appointed in a way that would be impossible in the UK for someone like May.

Except, that's all completely false, fed by misinformation and lack of information. Read on... (10/35)

(Interlude: There will be people with MUCH better EU knowledge than me that will be able to clarify or correct me on specifics. There'll also be people with zero EU knowledge that try to do the same, I'll try to retweet those helping to positively inform) (11/35)

So Junker was the selected "leader" of the EPP (think Tories), a group of different MEPs from different parties around Europe. His main contender was Schulz, who was the "leader" nominated by the S&D grouping (think, Labour)

Next, we had EU Parliament elections.. (12/35)

People voted for MEPs, the grouping of MEPs with the largest number of seats was decided, collectively amongst other groupings, to have "won" the right to send their leader to the European Council (28 heads of state) to be approved. Does this sound familiar? (13/35)

It should, because in 2017 we voted for our MPs, and the group of MPs with the largest number of seats got together with another group of MPs (the DUP) to decide that Theresa May had the right to go to the Queen to be allowed to form a government, thus becoming the PM (14/35)

So, just as Tusk holds a position through the same kind of democracy that May holds her position as leader of the Tory party, Junker holds a position much in the same vein of democracy as to how May is currently the PM of the UK (15/XX)

To round out the main three, there's also the President of the European Parliament. This person is most comparable to our Speaker of the House of Commons, though differs in important ways. The members of the EU Parliament vote for the person to take the role. (16/35)

So:

- European Council President elected in a comparable manner to how May recently elected as Tory leader.
- EU Parliament President elected in a comparable manner to the Speaker of the House of Commons
- European Commission President elected comparably to PM of UK (17/35)

Now, Tusk's situation is comparable to May purely because of how the MPs voting for her, and against her, all came to the conclusion that they didn't want to bother having their members vote. Normally it wouldn't be comparable, and is usually called an appointment (18/35)

This leads to claims that it is somehow devoid of democracy, that this is "Top down", but that would be a false assessment since by that logic a party selecting an MP for you to vote for would be "Top down" too, when clearly it is not. (19/35)

But the more important reality is that any supposed lack of democracy (which isn't the case as far as I'm concerned, but some seem to think every post with the word "president" or similar should have a popular vote) is the choice of the heads of state. (20/35)

It's entirely possible that in the future the members of the European Council could be at loggerheads over who to appoint (they need to agree a qualified majority, more on that next tweet), and decide a different nomination process. (21/35)

Qualified Majority: consilium.europa.eu/en/council-eu/…

Basically, votes can't be as good as 50/50, and a vote can't be carried by just member states that are the smallest states. Actual majority of constituents per country, and sureness of direction, is needed. (22/35)

If in the future it doesn't look like the president of the European Council can be elected this way, through a split in opinion, they may well decide they could do a popular vote (A referendum, essentially) to advise the European Council on how to nominate and appoint (23/35)

But this is all by the by, because Tusk is the equivalent in real terms of a Chair of Board of Executives. His role isn't to lead policy, it is to be the face of the heads of state, and help them come to consensus with one another. (24/35)

In the end, voting for Tusk would be as useful (and likely popular) as would be voting for the Chair of the board of executives for Airbus. Funnily enough, the board of Airbus probably know the best Chair for them, just as the European Council know the best Chair for them (25/35)

Then with Junker, there are obviously calls that as the head of the body that is responsible for crafting legislation to send to the various EU chambers, that we should directly vote for him. I don't have a problem with this in principle, wanting *different* democracy (26/35)

However it is the claim that he hasn't been elected democratically that is clearly absurd. There is also a question of whether it *matters* to more directly vote for that position, in my opinion it is not... (27/35)

Just like it doesn't necessarily matter too much who precisely the Prime Minister is because when you vote you bring in their party's manifesto, as it works currently it shouldn't matter too much who the President is because you vote for their manifesto too (28/35)

It would be odd, would it not, to deliver a Tory majority but then the public elect Corbyn as Prime Minister? It could be workable, but there is something to be said for believing that the majority will of the EU public should be represented in legislative direction too (29/35)

In any event, the appointment has to be confirmed by the European Council, and the president seems to by current convention be delivered by the winningest party group in the EU Parliament. I repeat, this isn't an alien concept to UK politics, rarely complained of (30/35)

A note too on democratic deficit within the UK compared to the EU. Want to get rid of the PM and her cabinet? Motions of no confidence are needed which generally force a re-election of all MPs in the house. To oust a PM, people need to vote to run for election again. (31/35)

Compare to the EU parliament, which can vote to remove the president. If they are successful they're gone. No-one has to re-elect the EU Parliament, and they are replaced only until the next EU Elections where a new president can be put forward by each party group (32/35)

Also regarding our Cabinet, in the UK responsible for coming up with most legislation. Do we get to vote on who runs the NHS? Do MPs get to vote on who determines the Budget? No, the PM just appoints them. In the EU, the comparable body is the EU Commission (33/35)

EVERY POSITION in the Commission is suggested with member states being involved in their nomination, with EU parliament being able to veto the Commission's composition, and then the 28 heads of state able to veto it too. The EU "cabinet" has checks and balances (34/35)

End: Every major position in the EU is elected or appointed in democratic fashion, with those casting votes having been directly or indirectly given the trust via election of citizens of various EU countries. The EU is a democratic body at least as much as UK Parliament (35/35)