[daveoflynn]

You're talking about European Commission, not the European Parliment. This action is being initiated by the directly-elected[1] Members of the European Parliment.

For readers more familiar with the US, the closest analogy is European Parliment == Congress, European Comission == Executive Branch [2]. Far from exact, but will give you a flavour of the reason the parent comment is so off base.

[1] In the countries I'm familar with they're all directly elected. Not sure if that's the case in all member states.

[2] Structure of the EU: http://publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-390500.htm