blog 1: Concerning my disappointment with the Union, my three reasons to vote and my three reasons not to.

1.This blog will try to be above all short and to the point. There will be three points of this first posting
2.The first point is why I am disappointed with the EU
2.1. The Common market is not working properly.
2.1.1. There are still many problems in administrative convergence among different countries. The impediments of tax, cross-border service provision and market regulation are preventing the single market to work with its full efficiency.
2.1.2. The regulation in the common market concerning financial transactions is lacking (obviously there is financial crises in over-regulated sector).
2.1.3. There are still inappropriately transported or implemented rules by the member states and lack of effective control on the application by the EC (they overemphasise on transportation).
2.2. The Commission is not able to deliver on its ambitious EU goals
2.2.1. The Lisbon strategy is far, far away from completed
2.2.2. The carbon-trading schemes are ill-managed by member states (Bulgaria among others) and there is loose control by the EC
2.2.3. So far there is not great deal of common action in the fiscal policies among Member states, unlike the ambitious statements from last autumn.
2.3. The policy-decision process is vastly exclusive
2.3.1. Most policy decisions are made by the Council behind close doors. I do not claim that it is bad thing as such, but it is not transparent
2.3.2. On the other hand everybody is trying to assure us (the citizens) that the policy decisions are transparent.
2.3.3. Thirdly the access to the Commission agenda is based on national policy considerations and not European-wide policy goals.
3.The second is three reasons why I should not vote for European Parliament
3.1. Corruption and conflict of interests
3.1.1. Last summer there was an internal corruption report by the EP. It was not published, but swept under the carpet.
3.1.2. The amount of money regional governments and industries pay for lobbing (official figures), together with the huge number of lobbyists (the payroll alone is possibly larger then the EP budget) suggests that citizens and their groups would need to pay (over the tax euros) for their interests to be heard.
3.2. Marginalized role
3.2.1. The EP majority hasn't got single EU-wide policy that is different from the position of the Council. Evidently the EMPs are more interested in their national party positions.
3.2.2. The control over the Commission activities is fragmented and lacks vision about the desired results
3.3. No one back home (Bulgaria) is interested in my interests
3.3.1. The last time around all the candidates were campaigning under the banner of protection of national interests
3.3.2. The national interests is defended by the Government in the Council. I am interested in someone who would defend my interests on EU-wide issues (green energy, market regulations, etc.) - there wasn't anybody.
4.The third issue I wish to discuss with my kind reader is three reasons why I should vote in the elections
4.1. The EU cares about the well being of its citizens
4.1.1. In my opinion this isn't the case in my country, hence I am more affiliated with the Community and its institutions that the national ones.
4.1.2. United we stand (rich and helpfully prosperous), divided we fall
4.2. There are quite important decisions concerning the economy pending to the new EP
4.2.1. With the global economic crises upon us there would be various regulation that need to be implemented concerning derivatives. short selling, tax evasion, etc.
4.2.2. Using the dialogue instruments with the ECB the EP may serve as additional deterrent to exotic quantitative easing practices.
4.2.3. The EU Budget though modest should make progress towards more transparancy and helpfully the stamp of the Court of Auditors.
4.3. I hope (fools' hope that is) that this time the EMPs may change for the better
4.3.1. I hope they will make a stand to the other EU institutions and develop backbone
4.3.2. I hope they will make progress (real action, not PR) over their sleazy public image
4.3.3. I hope they will regulate the financial sphere reasonably.
5.Thank you for reading my blog