Given the way the European parliament elections tend to work, and the actual influence each elected member have I got to disagree RogerWilco.
the only real consequence is that the influence that i as a citizen wield is diminished, to take a practical example, Denmark has 13 seats in the Parliament, and 5.5 million citizen, the election participation was around 50% but it does not take a rocket scientist to see just how diluted the democracy is given the parliament has 736 members at present especially considering the huge influence that the EU wields on both cross border but also internal state matters. (Legislation on the maximum curvature of a banana ? (Thankfully that gem was abolished a few years back, after being enforced for 15 years or so))
more to the point the EU has a long tradition as a political "gravy train" and a place people who create too much fuzz on the local level gets tossed to for a period, the EU as such is not a bad idea and not one i am opposed to but its present form is too bloated and has too much influence with too little accountability for my taste, and the point of the Lisbon treaty was more to entrench the role of the current system and move forward towards the European superstate that really, nobody but the elected politicians see a point in as well as actually weakening the role of the Parliament a bit as Hitsuji outlined, as it stands the commission decides what's on the table and the Parliament is a big discussion club of sorts, admittedly with veto rights.
Bob171123 : see any black helicopters with a EU badge on recently ?
its been a long time since i have seen drivel like that produced. :)
firstly there are safeguards in place as part of the union that any change that gives up national sovereignty must be passed by national referendum, now i dont know if this covers the union as a whole (i suspect it does) but most of the old EU nations especially its a hotly debated topic whenever such a issue arises, even to the point where it becomes laughable because the difference between proposed national legislation and EU legislation is so minute that it makes no difference.
secondly emission policies make sense, just like the green hysteria makes sense. while we can debate global warming and its impact from here and until the sun swallows up the earth the simple fact is that fossil fuel is a finite recourse and our generation has no right to use it all here and now "because we can" and regarding copyright legislation and the like, to quote my old man "sweep in front of your own door before you tell others to sweep in front of theirs" i completely agree that things are getting out of hand in some cases but dont kid yourself and say its only "over there" its a growing issue in all "1st world" countries. (and on a unrelated note http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html )
however the whole "The Europeans have known authoritarian government for the better part of the last 2000 years" smacks of ignorance to me, the whole electoral college and two party system seems completely pointless and damaging to the democratic process but i don't go out of the way to claim the US is a puppet democracy or the like, different countries different ways of doing things. and believe me people here believe in the ideal of personal freedom every bit as much as every US Citizen i have met so far.
P.S. is it me, or is this forum system rather... crummy ?