[paulusthe]

This went through the EU Parliament. It was not an instruction handed down as dictat by an unelected bureaucrat or executive.

The same process is how every other EU wide regulation goes into effect. EU passes it, the member states get their input during the EU process, and the member states are then obligated to abide by the rules.

An analogous process, which is not a perfect analog but is similar, is how US federal rules get passed down to the states. The states get their input on federal legislation at the federal level, but then must abide by the resulting federal law.

I'd also add that giving every country a veto on any legislation would basically guarantee nothing gets done.

[friend_and_foe]

That's not how the US federal system works at all. It's not even similar. States are free to not enforce federal law and ignore it entirely. States cannot be directly compelled by the federal government to pass laws, though in practice they have done it a couple of times using education funding and highway funding as a carrot/stick.

Another big difference is that the state governments themselves have no representation in the federal government since the passage of the 17th amendment.

[chimeracoder]

> The states get their input on federal legislation at the federal level, but then must abide by the resulting federal law.

States have zero input on federal legislation (except constitutional amendments, which are rare, and not really "legislation").

Until the 17th Amendment, states had input via the Senate, but now that senators are elected directly by voters, states have no formal representation at the federal level.

[lakomen]

There was also ambiguity in how the vote was formulated and what yes and no meant. Many people demonstrated against the changes and they got pushed through by a suspicious voting process by Herr Voss.

You're now a criminal if you offer your webspace for free and someon3 uploads anything unlawful in the broadest sense.

Thanks EU corruption.