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[smjjames]

smjjames: No, you don't get what I mean. France propose that the MEP seats currently used by Britain be allocated to a EU-wide district once Britain leave.

Scriver: I'll see if I find a source, I just saw it on the FB page of Guy Verofstadt. (Former Belgian PM and liberal MEP)

I was responding to martinuzz's prediction that there won't be a Brexit.

How would they do the whole 'supranational' MEP thing anyway? Have the other MEPs vote on them? Going 'supranational' would be getting to the level where you'd typically be voting on an individual to represent the whole EU.

[Grim Portent]

smjjames: No, you don't get what I mean. France propose that the MEP seats currently used by Britain be allocated to a EU-wide district once Britain leave.

Scriver: I'll see if I find a source, I just saw it on the FB page of Guy Verofstadt. (Former Belgian PM and liberal MEP)

I was responding to martinuzz's prediction that there won't be a Brexit.

How would they do the whole 'supranational' MEP thing anyway? Have the other MEPs vote on them? Going 'supranational' would be getting to the level where you'd typically be voting on an individual to represent the whole EU.

It sounded like they want to do MEPs whose constituency crosses over borders so they represent people from multiple countries at once.

[smjjames]

smjjames: No, you don't get what I mean. France propose that the MEP seats currently used by Britain be allocated to a EU-wide district once Britain leave.

Scriver: I'll see if I find a source, I just saw it on the FB page of Guy Verofstadt. (Former Belgian PM and liberal MEP)

I was responding to martinuzz's prediction that there won't be a Brexit.

How would they do the whole 'supranational' MEP thing anyway? Have the other MEPs vote on them? Going 'supranational' would be getting to the level where you'd typically be voting on an individual to represent the whole EU.

It sounded like they want to do MEPs whose constituency crosses over borders so they represent people from multiple countries at once.

Still begs the question of how they'd do that.

[Sheb]

Basically, right now the EU is divided in a number of sub-national district that (some countries are a single district) each elect a number of MEP. This would in addition create a EU-wide district that would elect 50-odds MEP, so you'd be electing one guy that would compete in your sub-national distrist, and then also voting for an "at-large" MEP from the EU district.

Scriver, I'll need help to see how that is the disgusting end of democracy.


Edit: Part of the confusion might be of what you Americans think of as constituency. The European Parliaments constituency don't elect a single member each. For exemple, I'm in the French-speaking Belgian constitiency, which sends 8 members to the EP, appoint proportionnaly. (Belgiuam also has a flemish speaking constituency sending 12 MEP, and a German-speaking one sending 1 MEP. Scriver's Sweden has a single constituency sending 20 MEP.

Under this proposal, a new, EU wide constituency would be created, electing ~60 MEP proportionally in addition to the national ones. The idea is to force some part of the parliament to run on EU-wide issues rather than national one.

[smjjames]

I'm still confused what is considered a consistuency for the EU, by the language they speak? Ethnicity? Citizenship?

Sounds like an attempt to make it into two houses of Parliament.

[Loud Whispers]

That is absolutely fucking disgusting.
Goodbye democracy. You had a good run, I guess.

Europe was already kill

[scriver]

Scriver, I'll need help to see how that is the disgusting end of democracy.

Oh right, sorry. I forgot you ascribe to the "It's totally fine that the wolves decides what's for dinner" school of "democratic" thought, Sheb.

[Grim Portent]

I'm still confused what is considered a consistuency for the EU, by the language they speak? Ethnicity? Citizenship?

Some member states have one constituency that's country wide, others have multiple ones divided up in their own territory. The amount of constituents to MEP seems to vary pretty heavily, which is just plain old bad design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_constituency

There's a list of them there.

Sounds like an attempt to make it into two houses of Parliament.

Not at all, just a way to avoid a squabble over which country gets the abandoned seats given to them or a consistutional issue from just dissolving the seats outright.

[smjjames]

Spread them out evenly among members maybe? Also sounds like they never planned for in case the number of MEPs goes down and the seats are vacant for whatever reason.

[Dorsidwarf]

Scriver, I'll need help to see how that is the disgusting end of democracy.

Oh right, sorry. I forgot you ascribe to the "It's totally fine that the wolves decides what's for dinner" school of "democratic" thought, Sheb.

I dont understand what the hell you're talking about either. Can you tone down the "lol xd ebin meme" and actually elaborate?

[Loud Whispers]

I dont understand what the hell you're talking about either. Can you tone down the "lol xd ebin meme" and actually elaborate?

The wolves at dinner with the sheep metaphor, wherein the wolves and sheep sit at the dinner table and hold a vote on what to have for dinner. The wolves inevitably vote for the sheep :]

In this regard, there is a divide that can be generalized between the two factions in yurop, but I'm guessing both imagine the other as the wolf

[Dorsidwarf]

I dont understand what the hell you're talking about either. Can you tone down the "lol xd ebin meme" and actually elaborate?

The wolves at dinner with the sheep metaphor, wherein the wolves and sheep sit at the dinner table and hold a vote on what to have for dinner. The wolves inevitably vote for the sheep :]

In this regard, there is a divide that can be generalized between the two factions in yurop, but I'm guessing both imagine the other as the wolf

I get the metaphor, I just dont understand how using the abandoned british MEP seats as a kind of whole-europe constituency is the death of democracy

[scriver]

If seats are allocated supranationally as Sheb said I assume they will be weighted a capita. This will place even more power over the less populated countries in the hands of the extremely populated countries, ie Germany, France, and Italy.

Basically, with the UK in the system, the five biggest actors (German, France, Italy, UK, and Spain, from biggest to lowest) hold a ridiculous 49% of the vote. With the UK removed, you basically have a situation where the UK's 10% more or less gets handed over to the other big countries, resulting in an even bigger power shift to them.

[Egan_BW]

I dont understand what the hell you're talking about either. Can you tone down the "lol xd ebin meme" and actually elaborate?

The wolves at dinner with the sheep metaphor, wherein the wolves and sheep sit at the dinner table and hold a vote on what to have for dinner. The wolves inevitably vote for the sheep :]

In this regard, there is a divide that can be generalized between the two factions in yurop, but I'm guessing both imagine the other as the wolf

I get the metaphor, I just dont understand how using the abandoned british MEP seats as a kind of whole-europe constituency is the death of democracy

Because, I assume, EU=Bad™.

[scriver]

Because, I assume, EU=Bad™.

I just posted why.

Also, you are aware that the EU is an extremely neoliberal organisation which exists among other things to protect "European" trade interests abroad, which invariable involves exploiting and stepping on African and Asian countries a la neocolonialism, right? The EU is not the kind of thing you want to support if you want a clear conscience.