European elections: European Parliament has limited power to make decisions

Roussos Vranas writes in the daily Ta Nea about the relatively small influence of the European Parliament: "Why are its members political dwarfs? You just have to look at the numbers. On the one hand we have the 736 MEPs who are elected and on the other the 15,000 officials of the all-powerful EU Commission. The arithmetical deficit reveals a democratic deficit. … Although the Parliament is the only organ of the EU whose members are directly elected by the citizens of Europe its legislative powers are limited. The big decisions are made by the European Commission and the interest lobbies whom it consults. However these two are not elected by Europeans. All those who encourage us to go to the ballot for the European elections because the EU is supposed to be the only way out of the crisis are in fact expecting us to vote for an organ that they have robbed of any authority to find a solution."

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