EU Referendum questions: The EU political structure
Cambridge Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) Podcast
Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
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🗓️ 17 June 2016
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
In this ongoing series of short interviews, academics from the University of Cambridge and beyond shed light on the key issues to be considered in the run up to the upcoming referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.
This recording features Dr Julie Smith, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and member of the House of Lords. Dr Smith shares her perspective on the political structure and institutions of the EU, weighs up the concept of democratic deficiency, and considers the possible impact of the referendum.
This series has been created by the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS). For more information visit http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Julie Smith, I'm Director of the European Centre in the Polish Department |
| 0:13.0 | here at Cambridge and a member of the House of Lords. One of the things that bothers me about the whole referendum so far is that the debate on both sides has been somewhat ill-informed, ill-tempered, and seems to be based on assertion rather than fact. |
| 0:31.6 | Oldroom members of the public have been saying, we want the facts, and yet when we hear people suggesting |
| 0:37.5 | there is information, the other side simply rubbishes it. And I think this has been to the severe |
| 0:43.1 | detriment of open, effective debate in the UK. And in the next 10 days, I would really like that |
| 0:50.7 | to change. I think we need to be much more open about how the European |
| 0:54.3 | Union works and the implications of leaving for ordinary citizens. In particular, it's very |
| 1:01.8 | easy for critics to say the EU is undemocratic. It doesn't work properly. Well, how far is it |
| 1:09.2 | undemocratic? There is an elected European Parliament. The United Kingdom |
| 1:13.7 | has 71 members of that European Parliament, all elected on the basis of proportional representation. |
| 1:20.1 | Compare that with the House of Commons, which is not elected by proportional representation. |
| 1:25.1 | The government of this country was elected by 24% of eligible voters. |
| 1:30.0 | It doesn't necessarily sound like a majority. |
| 1:33.3 | And the House of Lords, in which I sit, isn't elected at all. |
| 1:36.8 | The only elected members are 90 hereditary peers. |
| 1:40.1 | So for believers to stand up in the House of Lords, as some of them do and say, the EU is not |
| 1:45.5 | democratic, I think they should look to their own chamber first. So the European Parliament's |
| 1:50.8 | elected, but also the other legislative body in the European Union is the Council of Ministers, |
| 1:56.6 | and every member state is represented there as well. So British ministers go and they have a seat at the table and they can vote. |
| 2:04.1 | So again, there is a democratic element and a representative element. |
| 2:08.0 | The UK isn't ignored. We have a seat at the table. |
| 2:12.0 | And that's true in all the EU institutions. |
... |
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