[auganov]

> and on the other have no idea about the EU parliamentary process. It is what you make it.

Yes. But the problem is people have a very hard time doing that. You cannot engage with EU level politics the same way you can in a real country. All these people speak different languages. Very hard to stay engaged when you have to listen to translations. You hardly ever get the kind of engaging coverage you would for domestic politics.

I know most of the politicians and parties in my country. I would easily recognize and have some opinion about most prominent congresspeople and senators in the US. Same goes for knesset members. Yet off top of my head I couldn't name you 10 EU MEPs. I know names of the biggest parties in the EU parliament but I couldn't tell you much about them.

Unless EU actually tries to establish a common culture and a common language, I don't see much changing.

[Spearchucker]

My boy goes to a European School (schools set up for employees of the Union), because my girlfriend works for a European institution. I sit on the parents association of the school. That said -

There already is a common language and it's English. It may not be officially recognized but it's what everybody working for an EU institution uses.

Not knowing any MEPs by name is your choice and not a deficiency of the EU.

[auganov]

Watch any EU parliament video and count how many people speak English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io8aRZUFCxE

Even the speaker of the house doesn't. President of the EU commission starts off in her language, briefly reads some English off a piece of paper and then switches back. Maybe 1 in 3 or 4 MEPs speak some English. It's very hard to watch. And mind you, in most EU countries regular people would have trouble following the English translation too, they'd need to find one in their language.

I'm not questioning what you said about those working in EU institutions, I'm sure that's true. But that's irrelevant, that's not what drives politics.