Zoran Milanović: “The European Commission is not a democratic institution”

The European Parliament and the European Commission are not democratic institutions, Croatian President Zoran Milanović claimed at the third Prespa Forum in Struga, adding that before teaching aspirants for EU membership about human rights and democracy, they should think about the level of democracy within the EU – reported Croatian news portal Nacional.hr.

The Prespa Forum Dialogue (PFD) is a platform created by the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia to enable countries, leaders, organizations, and citizens to build long-term relationships and strengthen partnerships.

President Milanović spoke at a panel discussion hosted by his North Macedonian counterpart Stevo Pendarovski, entitled “Peace and Democracy versus War and Autocracy”.

“Before we start lecturing others about human rights, values, etc., we should stop and think about ourselves, about the level of democracy within the EU,” Milanović said at the panel. “The EU institutions themselves are hardly democratic to say the least. The European Parliament is not a democratic institution, it does not function like national parliaments. The European Commission is not a democratic institution – it suffers from a chronic lack of responsibility,” he added.

Milanović repeated that there is no valid reason why the countries of the Western Balkans would not be admitted to the European Union, pointing out that the accession process is “humiliatingly long” and “unpredictable”.

Milanović does not see why, for example, Montenegro is less democratic than EU member Hungary. However, he believes that it is wrong to claim that Hungary is not a democratic country either, even though its “fundamental values of Open Society and Karl Popper” are not in agreement with the values of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“What makes Hungary autocratic? It is not really to my taste, but it is insulting to label him and the whole country authoritarian, as if some fools elected an authoritarian leader,”

Milanović pointed out.

When asked by the moderator about democratic decline in the Western Balkans, Milanović pointed out that he does not see it in any country in the region, despite the widespread use of that terminology. He pointed out as an example that after the democratic elections in Montenegro, the government was changed after 30 years.

“Vučić is not my best friend, but he is not my enemy either. We certainly had disagreements and misunderstandings, but he was democratically elected,”

he said. He believes that “phraseology” about democratic regression should not be used, as well as Euroscepticism in a pejorative sense, because skepticism is healthy. “We should be skeptical about everything about life, including the grandiose creations of our era,” Milanović pointed out.

Via Nacional.hr, Featured file image: Facebook/Zoran Milanović