Only the Commission gets to initiate legislation. But after that, a majority in parliament is needed and parliament is allowed to and regularly does amend the text. “Amend” shouldn’t be interpreted to mean “lightly edit”. Any given paragraph is more likely to be changed than not in this process, and on at least one occasion parliament just replaced the entirety of a bill.
The commissioners vary widely in competence both generally as well as in relation to their portfolio. There are legitimate superstars such as competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. People disagree about some of the targets of her investigations. But even her worst critics are apt to lament her ability to get thinks done rather than doubt her skills.
Then, there are commissioners decidedly lacking in competence, at least in regard to their portfolio. Günther Oettinger is a prime example here, and he was bound to head the digitization portfolio but was thankfully booted from the commission by von der Leyen taking up the German spot. These are usually long-time politicians who for some reason or other make an awkward fit for any national position, but are still too powerful within their national parties to be ignored altogether.
Then, there are actually corrupt lowlights. There are far fewer of these than people assume. Look for a Maltese flag to improve your chances if you’re looking for them.
Of course all of them have staff, which does the actual heavy lifting of writing bills (among other things). I hesitate to judge their skills on any absolute scale. But, purely subjectively, I’d say these teams are at least as good as any delegation from Germany, which are generally regarded as top-notch, but in my experience often carry along some bad apples they can’t get rid off because of tenure or whatnot.
I don’t know the people who worked on GDPR. You can expect them to have the internet skills of any 30- or 40-year old high performer, with a degree in law or the humanities more often than STEM. So they are unlikely to have programming experience, but do probably know what cookies are.
I’m somewhat struggling to come up with examples of technical knowledge that may have been missing here. In fact, I could probably summarize everything I know about cookies in less than five minutes. And while I probably lack some details, I doubt it would include anything of relevance to this legislation.
The commissioners vary widely in competence both generally as well as in relation to their portfolio. There are legitimate superstars such as competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. People disagree about some of the targets of her investigations. But even her worst critics are apt to lament her ability to get thinks done rather than doubt her skills.
Then, there are commissioners decidedly lacking in competence, at least in regard to their portfolio. Günther Oettinger is a prime example here, and he was bound to head the digitization portfolio but was thankfully booted from the commission by von der Leyen taking up the German spot. These are usually long-time politicians who for some reason or other make an awkward fit for any national position, but are still too powerful within their national parties to be ignored altogether.
Then, there are actually corrupt lowlights. There are far fewer of these than people assume. Look for a Maltese flag to improve your chances if you’re looking for them.
Of course all of them have staff, which does the actual heavy lifting of writing bills (among other things). I hesitate to judge their skills on any absolute scale. But, purely subjectively, I’d say these teams are at least as good as any delegation from Germany, which are generally regarded as top-notch, but in my experience often carry along some bad apples they can’t get rid off because of tenure or whatnot.
I don’t know the people who worked on GDPR. You can expect them to have the internet skills of any 30- or 40-year old high performer, with a degree in law or the humanities more often than STEM. So they are unlikely to have programming experience, but do probably know what cookies are.
I’m somewhat struggling to come up with examples of technical knowledge that may have been missing here. In fact, I could probably summarize everything I know about cookies in less than five minutes. And while I probably lack some details, I doubt it would include anything of relevance to this legislation.