DISINFO: The EU is ruled by unelected bureaucrats
SUMMARY
Brussels [the EU] is ruled by unelected bureaucrats – the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, and NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte. By the way, you could swap them around; nothing would change.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about a supposedly undemocratic EU, targeting EU officials and aimed at undermining trust in European institutions and portraying the EU as illegitimate.
The assertion that the EU is governed by 'unelected bureaucrats' ignores the democratic procedures for EU appointments and elections and distorts the structure of the European institutions.
The European Union’s founding treaties collectively underpin the principle that the electoral procedures and leadership selection processes for the main EU institutions must be carried out in a transparent and democratic way.
The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is appointed by the governments of EU member states and approved by the European Parliament, which is directly elected by EU citizens. This is a multi-stage democratic process.
The Secretary General of NATO is appointed by consensus by all member states of the alliance – their governments, elected through elections. NATO does not govern the EU or make decisions for European capitals.
The EU is a system of institutions where key decisions are made either by the elected European Parliament or by the governments of member states through the European Council and the Council of the EU. Brussels does not "seize power" but is the administrative centre of a union of sovereign states.
EU citizens are central to the EU’s democratic process, and they all have a right to vote in the European elections.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the European Union is a democratic dictatorship, that European citizens have no say in European Council and Commission appointments, or that the EU is not a democratic entity, it is NATO’s political arm.