Not the case, Stanron. The elected representatives can oblige the Commission to initiate matters which may then be legislated on by them. Bet you can't give me an example of when the Commission has outright refused such a request. In any event, the elected representatives can throw out or modify the Commission's suggestions. Yes there is a bureaucracy. We've got one of those too. The leave campaign has made great play about how undemocratic the EU is supposed to be, yet only elected members can pass the laws that bind us. I'd suggest to you that the biggest democratic deficit of all is created when voter turnout for European elections is so low. And no prizes for guessing one of the main drivers of that deficit: why, the constant whingeing of eurosceptics about how remote and undemocratic the EU is, about gravy trains, about ever-closer union, about the United States of Europe to come (which, oddly, never seems to arrive)... yep, that talk is precisely how you you piss off the voters and make them think they can't have any influence, so they don't bother to vote. The attempt at creating a self-fulfilling prophesy, I'd say. And sheer hypocrisy when tied to claims about how undemocratic the EU is supposed to be. There's nothing more undemocratic than an election in which the true situation is serially misrepresented to voters who then don't turn out to vote. Well, apart from referendum campaigns run by two sets of liars, I suppose...