Yes, it actually is. Why have such a figurhead in the first place?
-Blair is a weak puppy, and I'd be damned if that..thing would be head of the EU.
the €.

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En uneksi. I do not dream.

Please not Vaclav Havel. When he speaks he sounds like having some mental/speech disorder. People used to joke about the way he spoke. He can be compared to Lech Walesa - popular in the beginning, but not liked later. People also forgot his blatant lies in 1989 demonstrations.

When somebody who was born in Czechoslovakia is against him, you should listen

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No loyalty towards the EU.

Ignore list: Stapo, Thorvald

Blair?

Why not Berlusconi?

This may be somewhat off topic, and if it is I'd be glad to just make a new thread to talk about it, but: what power does the Commission have over the member states? Can it (or perhaps the Court of Justice?) compel a member state to actually do anything?

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No man is an island...
Each man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in Mankind.
And therefore, never send to know
For whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
—John Donne

Lol... noooo please

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It has to comply with all the treaty signed, like for the Maastrichet treaty (about the Euro), low inflation needed, low deficit,etc... if not EU shall give them a fine... but in practice, it is rarely the case... (1 or 2 years ago Germany and France did not comply and nothing happened...)

also a citizen can sue his own state, recently a homosexual couple sue the French State because a French court didn't give them the right to adopt a kid and they won in the EU court in Strasbourg

etc...

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Well I think the Blair creature and the EU deserve each other. Power-mad, vain, greedy, shallow and unprincipled. Perfect! This comes as no surprise, many people in this country have been saying for a long time that he's always wanted to be President of the EU, that's why the little toad repeatedly sold this country down the river in order to further his own personal ambition.

On second thoughts, heaven forbid he get into a position whereby he'd have power over this country again. It'd be one in the eye for Brown though.

for a long time, why? since he hasn't done anything for the EU when he was PM, how come?

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Well, the view from here is often that he is shallow and unprincipled, and only interested in his own personal gain. He's also the most pro-EU prime minister the UK has had since Heath (shudder) and it seemed increasingly obvious that his own vanity and ambition were the reasons for that?

How do you mean 'hasn't done anything?' This country was far more independent before he took over, and if it wasn't for fear of alienating his own party and people further, it'd have been even worse!

really? what exactly he has done for the EU? :/

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Together with the Council (represeting the single States), the Commission is the executive organ of the EU. This means that it is there to make legal propositions and to execute them (regulations and directive). It conducts a lot of hearings and set up white and green papers about about possible legislation. All in all, it must be withing the scope of its fields of competance as set up by the various treaties which have made up the EU since the Treaty of Rome, all consolidated in the present "constitution" : EU legislation is harmonizing legislation, i.e. harmonize into one single EU rule all the various European legilation in order to make trade (movement of goods & people) within the EU easier.

Problems arise when the Member States do no enact national legislation in accordance to the directives issued. In case of a trade dispute between, let say Germany and another State, this can go to the European Court of Justice and usually Member States follw its decisions.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

^^ And if they dont follow the case is decided by the European Court of Justice, and if the member state refuses to comply even after a judgment of the Court states that it is violating directives, heavy fines can be applied by the Court until the state adopted its legislation in order to comply.

This last step of heavy fining is however a very rare one. I dont know any examples where it went to this very end.

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When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.