In the article entitled “Voting will not change Europe’s real power balance” the Financial Times say that the upcoming polls will be of no importance because there is a popular displeasure at Brussels .

“A popular displeasure at this amorphous political cloud called Brussels should not be surprising. Voters are not interested in inter- institutional rivalries. They are protesting against bad policies that have caused austerity, high unemployment and low investment .The system of checks and balances between EU institutions is out of control, and this in turn contributed to bad policies. The commission and the parliament are the junior associates of the team, visible and loud, but in the wrong room”, the article mentions.

Also the author discusses the question raised recently by the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompu “where does real power lie? With the parliament or, as in the past, with the European Council – the heads of state and government?”.

The article in Financial Times says that “The failure of recent years for the EU was intellectual, because when the crisis struck, the institutions of Europe were off- script. Immediately after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the basic concern of a senior EU official was the impact of any bank rescue package on European competition strategy. He did not even think about deposit insurance or joint supervision . Neither did he have any contingency plan in his drawer”.

The author continues mentioning that “The council has proved more flexible in the crisis than it was expected, but failed to cover the needs. All it did was to agree the minimum required to keep the show go on”.

According to the article “The biggest irony of the EU is that each new treaty contributes to increasing its formal parliamentary powers but in fact the Council becomes even stronger”. And the author continues saying “The European Commission has also lost power and position” leading to a power shift.