Democratic renewal in the EU

This page documents my notes on the EU’s attempts to renew and reinforce its democracy. it should be read in conjunction with my Digital Regulation in the EU page, and Subsidiarity and proportionality , which deals with the laws and treaties. The page, EU Reform, on this wiki talks about the initiatives in the winter of 23/24 which ran out of time i.e. AFCO vs the Council. I also made this, a page based on some ERS criticisms of the EU, not all of which I agree with, and in fact, have moved away from some points with which I agreed at the time.

• Democracy without limits: no more undemocratic thresholds in Europe, a polemic against thresholds in STV elections, theoretically designed to exclude time wasters, and arguably a threshold set too low in Israel, but can be used to exclude regional (and other minorities). Their problem is that PR is designed to leave a quota unrepresented. There will always be rounding errors when you try and elect 700 people from 400m. Even more so when you look to elect one person. They have some curious examples from Slovakia and Romania and present the Netherlands as beacon of good practice.
• The EU’s Democracy Action Plan, they say, the European Democracy Action Plan is designed to empower citizens and build more resilient democracies across the EU by, promoting free and fair elections, strengthening media freedom, and countering disinformation.

Arguably on of the most important campaigns is No to Veto, which is aimed at reducing/removing the right of Veto in the Council.

Euronews comments, that it’s not just foreign actors that subvert democracy, the loss of hope undermines it more.

Summer 2024

The French arrested the CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, sparking conversations about freedom of speech. The Brazilians also blocked Twitter/X. The EU has been considering a response for a while, and in the UK the new government is considering the powers embedded in the Online Safety bill, which was designed to stop cyberbullying [of politicians] and they think needs to be rethought in the light of the riots.

1. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/online-disinformation
2. https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/new-push-european-democracy/protecting-democracy_en
3. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/27/what-does-the-telegram-founders-arrest-mean-for-the-regulation-of-social-media-companies-pavel-durov
4. https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-charges-musks-x-for-letting-disinfo-run-wild/
5. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/04/elon-musk-x-twitter-eu-hate-speech-disinformation-vera-jourova
6. The last few days I’ve listened to any number of podcasts regarding the Durov affair, but if I’d listened to only one I’d have wanted it to be The 9pm Edict by @Stilgherrian and So, Alec, what do *you* believe is happening with Pavel Durov and Telegram Messenger and the French Government? by Alec Muffet. Alec excoriates Durov and Telegram. In his writing, he wonders what and how web blocking will work in the world of VPN’s.