I think the fundamental problem with the European Union is the way it's organized and governed.
The reason we don't see a wholly European solution to many of these problems is due to the fact that the decision making progress is functionally biased towards each of the member's states unique interests.
The most important institution we have in Europe is, in my opinion, the European Parliament. It is designed in a way that ensures fair representation of all countries and at the same time enables us to pass legislation for which there is collective support. Its members are elected directly by the people in the European elections, which are separate from national elections, for obvious reasons.
All of this, however, is subverted by the existence of the European Council as well as the Council of the European Union (yes, the naming is a bit confusing). Their members are respectively the 28 heads of state of each EU country and members of their government.
This means that, while the European Parliament is elected with the express purpose of dealing with EU law, the European Council and the Council of the European Union are fruit of very different elections and because of that, they are bound to put their national interests first, since they might lose votes at the national level otherwise.
In my opinion, the European Council and the Council of the European Union should be replaced by a body elected directly by either the European Parliament, or in some way, the European population.
> In my opinion, the European Council and the Council of the European Union should be replaced by a body elected directly by either the European Parliament, or in some way, the European population.
The EU is never going to work because its people are too different, they don't speak the same language, don't have the same culture and its citizens aren't that mobile (good luck finding a job in France if you don't speak french, good luck expending your business to Germany if you don't understand the German market and law, thinking that the EU can copy the US in anyway is a huge mistake). We have already seen that with each crisis ( the Greek crisis, the refugee crisis ... ) that it is still everybody for himself and rightfully so. Mind you i'm not anti-european, I was fine with the EEC, the EU is an experiment and us citizens are the guinea pigs.
The reason we don't see a wholly European solution to many of these problems is due to the fact that the decision making progress is functionally biased towards each of the member's states unique interests.
The most important institution we have in Europe is, in my opinion, the European Parliament. It is designed in a way that ensures fair representation of all countries and at the same time enables us to pass legislation for which there is collective support. Its members are elected directly by the people in the European elections, which are separate from national elections, for obvious reasons.
All of this, however, is subverted by the existence of the European Council as well as the Council of the European Union (yes, the naming is a bit confusing). Their members are respectively the 28 heads of state of each EU country and members of their government.
This means that, while the European Parliament is elected with the express purpose of dealing with EU law, the European Council and the Council of the European Union are fruit of very different elections and because of that, they are bound to put their national interests first, since they might lose votes at the national level otherwise.
In my opinion, the European Council and the Council of the European Union should be replaced by a body elected directly by either the European Parliament, or in some way, the European population.