Originally Posted by
Rudy Tamasz
Hit back with an argument about my own country, which is not the subject of this discussion, wouldn't you? ;)
The answer about members of the government being elected is they are elected in very few countries if any. It is the parliamentarians who are elected and who the government members report to. The thing about EU is that the balance of powers there is heavily skewed towards the executive branch. EU is effectively controlled by the European Commission, which is a law upon itself and is not really accountable to anybody. The unaccountability of the government is a big issue in my country and that's exactly where I'm coming from.
You are also apt at finding negativity where there is none. "Foreign" in this case means "unaccountable to local people", that's it. "Foreign" per se might be as good as it gets, but in the context of governance, governing bodies have to be accountable to their constituencies. The European Commission is clearly not accountable to the voters of any given EU country. This situation is not negative or positive. It is just unacceptable.
BTW, if I may, what is the income tax rate that you pay in your country?