[tfourb]

EU représentatives are literally elected by the population under the same rules as national legislators. EU commissars are appointed directly by the elected governments of EU member states, similar to ministers/secretaries on the national level. Stop spreading misinformation.

[blibble]

EU commissioners are appointed by someone who is appointed by someone who is appointed by someone who is elected

by definition this is not direct representation

[iknowstuff]

The commission is only one of the branches. The Parliament is directly elected, and the Council is heads of states.

Most countries don’t elect their prime ministers directly, they’re appointed by their parliaments

[tfourb]

"Commissioners are nominated by member states in consultation with the commission president, who then selects a team of commissioners. This team of nominees are then subject to hearings at the European Parliament, which questions them and then votes on their suitability as a whole. If members of the team are found to be inappropriate, the president must then reshuffle the team or request a new candidate from the member state or risk the whole commission being voted down." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commissioner

This is effectively the same procedure that ministers/secretaries are appointed by on the national level. The only difference is that it is not the national legislature, but the EU parliament approving the appointment. And again: the EU parliamentarians are directly (!) elected by EU citizens, according to their national election laws.

So please, please shut up about stuff you obviously don't know anything about.

[blibble]

> Commissioners are nominated by member states in consultation with the commission president, who then selects a team of commissioners.

let's break this down into levels of appointments

how are commissioners selected?

> with the commission president, who then selects a team of commissioners.

ok, so that's one level of appointment (TOTAL: 1)

how is the commission president selected?

they're appointed, by the council (TOTAL: 2)

how are the council members selected? (obviously e.g. the land mass "Germany" can't vote for itself)

who has the council vote? the German Chancellor

how is the German Chancellor selected?

they're appointed by the German Parliament (TOTAL: 3)

who select members of the German Parliament? the German people, so they are directly elected

so that's three levels, matching what I originally said:

> so EU commissioners are "appointed by someone (commission president) who is appointed by someone (head of government) who is appointed by someone (parliament) who is elected"

the statement is accurate

the fact bits of this are rubber stamped by the EU parliament is beside the point, the spitzenkandidat idea was completely killed off in 2019

> So please, please shut up about stuff you obviously don't know anything about.

cough

[tfourb]

Not sure why you insist on this, but you are counting wrong:

"Comissioners are nominated by member states". That's it. Yes, the commission president is the one that presents the list of commissioners to the EU parliament, but the member states (effectively the heads of national governments) are nominating the actual candidates.

*Exactly" the same as secretaries/ministers on the national level, who are also nominated by the heads of their respective national governments. Which is fitting, because the commissioners are more or less the EU ministers, i.e. the heads of executive agencies. They are no more or less removed from the voters than their national counterparts. I really don't get what your problem is.

Or you start from the other direction: Voters select their (EU) parliamentarians, parliamentarians appoint the commissioners. End of story.

The vote of the EU parliament is hardly a "rubber stamp". The list of commissioners is negotiated with the parliament and there have been various occasions where the list had to be reshuffled because the parliament would not accept a certain nomination.

[iknowstuff]

ugh I’m so sick of the clueless brexiteer talking point about bUrEauCRaTs!