A loophole in parliamentary procedure allowed MEPs to extend mass scanning of private communications until 2026 — without a direct vote on the substance of the law.
„The Council then sent the file back to Parliament at the beginning of the vacation season, where it was difficult to secure the necessary majority to dismiss it again“
What are we paying these people for? It should be obvious that it is Part of your duties being a member of parliament to monitor and act on stuff while being on vacation.
When I have vacation, I don’t want to be bothered with work related stuff either. I understand their want for a vacation, and they should not be blamed. The system that allows this chicanery is at fault here.
FFS this isn’t some factory job where you punch in and out. If you can’t have your precious vacation interrupted for the sake of the nation you should find another job
I’m sorry but you’re enabling this behavior. When I take an official holiday, I’m unavailable for work, simple as that. Work is a part of my life, not the definition of my life.
As of July 1, 2019, the monthly salary is of €8,932.86, or just over €107,000 per year.[15] MEPs also receive a general expenditure allowance of €4,563 per month.[15]
If I can be called in from vacation for €43k a year, these cunts can come in to vote for the fucking future of democracy for €107k.
Is it right to interrupt vacations? No. Does it matter in this case? Also the fuck no. The thing happened! They weren’t there! If they want better rights or whatever I guess they should fucking unionise or whatever. Sitting out on a vote of this magnitude is beyond reprehensible.
I agree. I guess what I didn’t say is that I do a bunch of work on the clock in order to ensure 99% of my responsibilities are covered. And then even the other 0.9% my coworkers can just deflect or work around.
But if a situation arises that actually hurts people imo that is no longer a work issue but a humanity issue, and if my fellows can’t handle it then I do want to be made aware.
If this a regular occurrence then there needs to be some way to block or mitigate the damage, so that people can go on vacation and not worry they’re coming back to a mess.
I mean how are there not people in your office, people you work next to, people who know about which issues you ought to be made aware of, that can reach out to you?
The total vote count required shouldn’t change if someone’s on vacation.
If they can’t vote remotely or by proxy, then the vote should either be delayed or extended, or anyone absent should be listed as not present or abstained. Either way the percentage of “yes” votes shouldn’t be any different from if every seat was in attendance.
If there’s a threshold needed for a “yes” vote then it’s functionally the same, even without counting as one. I’m just saying that threshold shouldn’t go down just because someone is on vacation.
I don’t want to be bothered with work related stuff either. I understand their want for a vacation, and they should not be blamed
Have you ever heard the phrase, “With great power comes great responsibility”? Yes, it’s from some dumb capeshit, but it’s true. If you want to be elected into a position of such power, then you’re voluntarily signing up for the responsibility, including the responsibility to keep shit like this from happening when you go on vacation.
Vacation is vacation. They have a right to a vacation just like I do. The system should have safeguards in place. I don’t want the elected to have a burnout, just in the same way that I don’t want to have a burnout.
„The Council then sent the file back to Parliament at the beginning of the vacation season, where it was difficult to secure the necessary majority to dismiss it again“
What are we paying these people for? It should be obvious that it is Part of your duties being a member of parliament to monitor and act on stuff while being on vacation.
When I have vacation, I don’t want to be bothered with work related stuff either. I understand their want for a vacation, and they should not be blamed. The system that allows this chicanery is at fault here.
The neat part is the system doesn’t allow it but the person that had to reject it was for this so she didnt
FFS this isn’t some factory job where you punch in and out. If you can’t have your precious vacation interrupted for the sake of the nation you should find another job
I don’t want to be bothered while on vacation either, but if something happens at work that needs my specific attention someone will find me.
For fuck’s sakes we can’t be taking server rooms more seriously than democracy.
I’m sorry but you’re enabling this behavior. When I take an official holiday, I’m unavailable for work, simple as that. Work is a part of my life, not the definition of my life.
As per Wikipedia on the topic.
If I can be called in from vacation for €43k a year, these cunts can come in to vote for the fucking future of democracy for €107k.
Is it right to interrupt vacations? No. Does it matter in this case? Also the fuck no. The thing happened! They weren’t there! If they want better rights or whatever I guess they should fucking unionise or whatever. Sitting out on a vote of this magnitude is beyond reprehensible.
I agree. I guess what I didn’t say is that I do a bunch of work on the clock in order to ensure 99% of my responsibilities are covered. And then even the other 0.9% my coworkers can just deflect or work around.
But if a situation arises that actually hurts people imo that is no longer a work issue but a humanity issue, and if my fellows can’t handle it then I do want to be made aware.
If this a regular occurrence then there needs to be some way to block or mitigate the damage, so that people can go on vacation and not worry they’re coming back to a mess.
In this case, this is a thing that can be postponed
I can agree if they called them because “OH NO ALL OUR PEOPLE ARE DYING WHAT DO WE DOO” but it’s not
I guess I’m not European so I don’t know that much about this process. It sounded serious, but if it can be postponed then yeah postpone.
When a server is down, they want to find you. When they want to pass a law which you will vote against, how hard do you think they’re trying?
I mean how are there not people in your office, people you work next to, people who know about which issues you ought to be made aware of, that can reach out to you?
The total vote count required shouldn’t change if someone’s on vacation.
If they can’t vote remotely or by proxy, then the vote should either be delayed or extended, or anyone absent should be listed as not present or abstained. Either way the percentage of “yes” votes shouldn’t be any different from if every seat was in attendance.
Never heard of a parliament where abstain = no. Is that common?
If there’s a threshold needed for a “yes” vote then it’s functionally the same, even without counting as one. I’m just saying that threshold shouldn’t go down just because someone is on vacation.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “With great power comes great responsibility”? Yes, it’s from some dumb capeshit, but it’s true. If you want to be elected into a position of such power, then you’re voluntarily signing up for the responsibility, including the responsibility to keep shit like this from happening when you go on vacation.
Vacation is vacation. They have a right to a vacation just like I do. The system should have safeguards in place. I don’t want the elected to have a burnout, just in the same way that I don’t want to have a burnout.
But it doesn’t.
And until it does, the privacy rights of millions of people is more important than a few politicians’ vacation time.
But they knew the ramifications of the job when they accepted it.
Right there should be, but there isn’t, so until there is they need to have someone from their office on the spot to field important stuff like this.
It’s not a regular job though. They know what they’re getting into.
The difference beeing is that.they do not have attendence requirements, which i am sure you do at your work, can’t just not show up.
To be fair, Europe is all about their summer vacations.
I mean maybe get pissed at your premier for playing these underhanded games