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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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EU: Incremental de-democratization?
The European Union, at the beginning the European Economic Community, started as a purely intergovernmental organization, akin of NATO or the United Nations. It, however, quickly surpassed its intergovernmental nature and became a strange creature, neither a simple forum of governments, nor a super state completely replacing the national democratic institutions. People still discuss what's the nature of this new Frankenstein, just confirming that there has been no similar good delivered to the public since the beginning of the written history of the mankind. To simplify the matter, without falling into oversimplification, a non-elected and self-recruiting body of experts in Brussels, following bureaucratic procedures and rationality, concentrated an enormous power of policy-making, transferring to democratically elected politicians the role of mere rubber-stamping. Although in theory following the general directives of the elected politicians, this self-proclaimed embodiment of European expertise actually imposes the agenda for development of almost half a billion people, trying to eliminate any democratic check and balance on its way. In taking evermore powers away from elected national governments, Brussels have the Europeans not as enemies, but as allies. Surprisingly, but most Europeans prefer to see the European Union not as a fundamental threat for their liberties, but as an ally for their short-term interests. When, for example, the Europeans look for Brussels' protection for their rights in other European countries, they don't make the simple link between this and the elimination of governmental responsibilities. On the other hand, these same Europeans find increasingly frustrating that their own governments, following the same logic, are denied protecting their citizens' rights and interests. The question that divided the Europeans two years ago and finally led to a fiasco in both France and the Netherlands, would have been considered in other circumstances as purely procedural, how to rearrange the voting powers between the EU members in the light of the massive increase in the membership. The solution that was proposed, however, showed complete disrespect toward the rights of the Europeans as citizens and voters. Instead of increasing the democratic dimension of the Union, by allowing the citizens to keep the Commission accountable through a real European parliament, the bureaucracy decided to eliminate some of the few remaining checks by the national governments. This 'byzantine' solution didn't pass then, thanks to the French citizens that rebelled against their political class. It was clear then that Brussels won't let the music stop playing on such a note. In the next 18 months, when Germany and France will lead the show, they both will preside the EU, Brussels will try to implement the same reforms without appealing to the constitutional revisions, which require parliament approvals or referenda. The process of de-democratization will be done step-by-step, instead of giant leaps ahead. If the reforms succeed, in this generation lifetime Europe will be the first successful experiment of eliminating democratically elected systems on a large scale in world history without a single shot, without a coup, without a war, and without even discrediting the democratic norms. Elected national governments in Europe won't disappear overnight, in fact, as they become increasingly irrelevant, they may even be spared, just for the sake of democratic appearance. The real and unlimited masters in Europe will be the Brussels' apparatchiks, people that will set the agenda in the best interest of most citizens and will execute it. Many Europeans that for a very long time lived under different forms of dictatorships, won't even notice the difference.
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