The Union is also often accused of immobility, of not being able to decide. But if the Union doesn’t decide it is because the Member States don’t decide, or more often, because the Member States don’t want the Union to take decisions. I will come back to this issue later. The other misrepresentation is about the competences of the Union.
They are much more limited than people generally think, but they are often at the heart of the misunderstandings and frustration that the Union creates. Let me be more concrete here, and give you some examples. I understand that one of the reasons for some people voting against the Lisbon Treaty in this country was the fear that Brussels, i.e.