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by Freak_NL 2666 days ago
Politicians will always come up with dangerously worded good intentions every once in a while, regardless of which parliament it is — national or European. At least at the European level the number of folk that pick up on the risks of such articles is significantly higher than at the national level — especially for smaller countries.

Asking for feedback on complex legislature proposals is surely preferable to exclusively taking notes from meetings with lobby groups behind closed doors. Besides, national governments often ask for feedback on proposed laws too!
1 comments
x38iq84n 2666 days ago
Each body that can introduce legislation represents a possible attack vector against our remaining freedom. Each additional tear of government is more distant from the voter, more difficult to oversee, communicate with and oppose.

I have to ask why should such piece of legislation exist in the first place? What problems of today does it aim to solve? What is the quantified impact of these problems that we need to adopt new regulation? I have read related documents and there is no such reasoning, just vague boilerplate.

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Freak_NL 2666 days ago
The trade-off for delegating some of the national sovereignty to the EU is that as independent nations we cannot trade and deal with other powerful entities such as the US and China nearly as effectively. For example, a country like the Netherlands risks having trade deals dictated to them rather than negotiated as equals.

With the Brexit looming over the United Kingdom, already the effects of leaving the influence of the EU bloc behind are becoming clear, with the US attempting to dictate the terms of their post-EU trade deal.

Regulation such as this is necessary to harmonize the various national laws on this subject so manufacturers can target the single market of the EU without having to certify their gear in each member state. This is mentioned in the documents about this law as well (I've closed my browser tabs after submitting my feedback, but it's there). I'm not too well versed in this matter, but the net-benefit seems to be economic.

The EU and it democratic institutions can be vastly improved, but we are better of with them than without them — especially now.

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