Hello everyone.
This video is a collaboration with Kurzgesagt and will thus be a bit different.
In preparation for the upcoming European election, a number of European YouTubers will upload this video
in one of the 24 official languages of the European Union.
Seeing as I'm from Sweden, Kurzgesagt asked me to narrate their video in Swedish
which I am more than happy to do.
English subtitles will of course be available but if you prefer dub over sub
you can head over to Kurzgesagt's channel.
Without further ado, here's the video.
Being a citizen of the European Union means that many aspects of our lives are regulated by a weird entity.
It feels like a huge bureaucracy is making decisions over our heads.
Many Europeans think that their vote in the EU elections doesn't count and that the EU is not democratic.
How democratic is the EU really and does your vote actually achieve anything?
In democratic states, public policies are based on the will of the people.
But the people are not a coherent thing.
Countless different groups are battling for influence and power to establish laws and rules that benefit them.
In a working democracy there are checks and balances
that are supposed to create a fair environment, where these battles can be fought.
Term limits stop factions from dominating too much.
But all of this ends at our borders.
International politics are not democratic but anarchic.
No central authority is powerful enough to ensure fairness or enforce laws
so the only law is the tyranny of the strongest and anarchy.
So for most of human history, powerful countries took what they wanted from others
either by extortion or by violence.
After World War II, the United Nations were founded to overcome this anarchy
by establishing rules on how countries should behave.
But since the UN has virtually no power and its members often have opposing interests
it is usually politely ignored.
The EU is a construct that tries to have rules and laws for its member nations that are actually enforceable
as the European Court of Justice is able to make binding decisions.
Originally the EU was founded to ensure peace between European nations and prosperity for the continent
but it's also an attempt to gain international power for its members.
It's like a "super state", and it is striving to be democratic and legitimized by all of its citizens.
To do that it has to solve the problem of different actors wanting different things.
Only that its members are countries with very different priorities.
So how does this work?
Since the EU is ridiculously complex and politicians are even worse than scientists at naming things
we'll simplify massively and omit a lot of details.
You can find further reading in our sources document.
Ok! If you want to create a democratic union of independent nations you have two options:
One: let everybody vote for national politicians, who then make decisions for the union together.
Or two: let every citizen vote directly for an independent institution that is able to make binding decisions.
Both approaches have up and downsides and the EU ended up with a mix of both of them.
Next to the European Court of Justice there are four main institutions that we'll talk about today:
The European Council, which is made up of the heads of government or states of the member countries.
The Council of the EU, with ministers from the member countries.
The third one is the European Commission, which is the de facto government of the EU,
having one commissioner for each member state.
And lastly the European Parliament.
The Parliament is the only part of the EU that is directly elected, by you, dear citizen, in the European Elections.
In principle all of these institutions of the EU originate from your direct or indirect vote
be it at the national or EU level.
But some do more than others.
For example, you vote for your national representative and therefore contribute to form a national government
whose head of state has a seat in the European Council.
These leaders choose the President of the EU Commission and its fellow Commissioners
who eventually are confirmed by the EU Parliament.
So this is a sort of indirect democracy.
You didn't vote for the Commission but you voted for the people who appointed them
and for those who confirmed and police them.
So in effect 2.5 of the 4 main European Union institutions depend on the member state governments.
But since you as a citizen can only directly vote for the European Parliament, the question is...
How powerful is it?
How much influence does your vote have?
The European Parliament started out with very little influence
but has became more and more powerful over the past two decades.
Today it has to approve new laws, which can be binding for the member countries.
It also votes on how the EU budget is spent and, most importantly, on international treaties.
All of this makes the Parliament very powerful and thus your vote very influential,
even on an international level.
Compared to national Parliaments one major power is still missing though.
The EU–Parliament officially can't propose new laws on its own which is often the core of the argument
that the EU is not democratic enough and that the European Parliament should be given more influence.
Right now the member states' governments pretty much control the European Union.
Giving the Parliament more power, would make the EU as a whole more democratic
but it would also take power from member states.
It is not clear which approach is better.
Ultimately it is for the members states and us as citizens to decide how the Union should develop.
Ok. So can we draw a conclusion here?
As a whole the EU is not as democratic as most of its member states.
But it is democratic.
If you don't like decisions they make, regarding copyright for example,
you can look up what your representatives voted for, and vote them out.
The struggle to make it more democratic, is closely tied to who holds power over what.
The EU keeps changing.
You, dear citizen, are not only voting on the current politics
but also on what the system will look like in the future.
There are many parties and politicians that vowed to make the EU Parliament
and therefore your vote, stronger.
Many others want to keep it as it is or even diminish it.
It is for you to decide what you think is better for the future of the Union.
Currently it is equally important for the EU who you vote for at home.
Because these are the people who have the most influence in the European Union, right now.