Subsidiarity is a great thing. Higher instances of government should concentrate on setting minimum standards and facilitating coordination. Day-to-day concerns should not be the province of the national governments either. I'd strengthen both the EU and the local governments. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
The EU is wretchedly bad at is promoting itself. This is partly because it's not unified ideologically, but also because there's no mechanism which links people's experience of the benefits to their source.
In my (UK based) experience, when money becomes available, it's discussed in very remote terms. Someone in a country far away decides to offer money... and local people are happy to take it. But there doesn't seem to be any feeling of relationship with the source of the money. It might as well be the tooth fairy or Santa Claus.
This is very, very bad, because it enforces an assumption of non-participation. Us vs them is much less coherent than us here vs us there.
So the feeling of local intervention and interest matters a lot. If handled properly, it could do a lot to create political and social coherence.
since that's where the majority of the corruption is, i agree.
local government is also often corrupt and inefficient, but the damage is less catastrophic.
hopefully accountability will improve with growing awareness, stimulated by blogs like this. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
In Spain the biggest source of corruption are land reclassifications and infrastructure building contracts. Most of this is politically under local government, except for the big national infrastructure like high-speed rail. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
idem with italy and the land reclassifications and infrastructure building contracts, not receiving media attention.
the corruption i was referring to is around military-industrial spending and secret service shenanigans, rendition policies etc. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
