![]() ![]() Already the EU has ruled that all underground gas storage in member states must be filled to 80 percent by October. Russia supplies 40 percent of Europe’s gas. The depleting Russian supply to Germany is now causing some industries to reduce production.ĮU ‘energy curfews’ will probably be introduced this winter. The latest is that Germany wants all EU countries to ration gas because their main supplier – Russia – is on the warpath. Is this EU democracy or German-style democracy? Or a one-size-fits-all democracy (as long as it is drawn up by Germany)? When Covid was rampant German ‘democracy’ decreed that they would not share their PPE supplies with Italy. “We simply can no longer afford national vetoes, for example in foreign policy, if we want to continue to be heard in a world of competing great powers.” Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, he said the ‘selfish blockades’ used by member states against EU decisions should end. The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said recently that national vetoes should no longer be viable if the EU wants to be a global political player. The use of vetoes gave each member state a say in certain policies and decisions. What then of the EU? How democratic is it? Some claim there is also a monitory type of democracy, where government power is, according to political scientist John Keane, monitored by various ‘public and private agencies, commissions and regulatory mechanisms’. A constitutional democracy has a constitution that outlines who will represent the people and how – a governance ‘how to’ manual. Representative democracy has representatives elected by the people to perform the work of government. ![]() This form of democracy is no longer in vogue. ![]() We tend to use the word democracy as if it has one meaning when it has several.ĭirect democracy, common in ancient Athens, was limited to majority rule decision-making by military-trained adult males only. Who does ‘democracy’ serve? Is it the country’s citizens or a select few in power? Therein lies democracy and its various shades. Umbrella terms like Mossad, Foreign Legion or MI6 spring to mind. Other ‘democratic’ countries also engage in similar ‘democratic’ activities, ranging from Israel to France and our closest neighbour. How that comes under a definition of democracy is difficult to fathom. In American parlance, you can ‘take out’ those you don’t like because they think or act differently. In America it means you can violate a country’s sovereignty and assassinate their citizens. ONE FOR ALL? European Union flags flying near parliament in Brussels.ĭeregulation, sanctions and ‘selfish blockades’ĭemocracy is a strange fish. ![]()
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