Not true, but not false. You’re half right.

The Commission has the right of initiative, which extends to a power to withdrawal. This means the Commission has the sole power to commence the legislative process, the Commission submits a bill, or suggestion and then passes it to the Council and the Parliament. Any amendments, any changes, any policy adjustment that the C and P suggest, any alterations made to the bill can all be undone by the Commission if they feel it isn’t what they were trying to achieve. This is the power to withdrawal, the only check on this power is the Commission has to provide reasons for withdrawal but it can’t be challenged once reasons are stated.

The Commission starts, overseas and co-ordinates the entire legislative process. The C and P are just faces, they add a thin layer of democratic legitimacy that is as deep as a puddle. The actual legislative actions taken by the C and P are entirely subject to Commission scrutiny.

We can also discuss the Council as well. Only around 18% of all policy making and drafting is done within the Council itself. The rest is managed by COREPOR and the majority by private committees and project groups who’s agendas, minutes, scripts and documents we have no access to. I have a source for this, but it escapes me at this very moment. I will edit it in later. I believe the figure might actually be lower than 18%. There is a secret government, as it’s been called, hidden underneath the Council. So, not very democratic is it?

I’m not saying this is all bad, or this is wrong. You also can’t say it’s democratic, the EU is far from democratic. The unelected Commission has full authority over the legislative powers through its treaty conferred powers, the Council also delegates the vast majority of its work to unknown and unelected groups of individuals.