Expert Leonid Bershidsky blasted the European Union for having a “democratic legitimacy problem” and accused the bloc of rejecting even small changes in a savage attack.
The Russian Berlin-based journalist said most ordinary voters do not understand what the European Parliament is about, which is why the election turnout is just 43 percent.
He claimed the EU governing bodies are not accountable or responsive to ordinary European voters.
The columnist described the European Parliament’s powers as “paltry” especially given its mega £1.5 billion annual budget.
Writing for Bloomberg View, he said: “If the EU were serious about making its decision process more transparent and democratic, it might want to recall an old proposal from former UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw that the European Parliament be abolished altogether.
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“National parliaments could delegate members a couple of times a year to vote on European legislation, or the process could simply be left to the Councils of Ministers.”
Mr Bershidsky, who is the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti, said a transnational election experiment, backed by President Emmanuel Macron, would allow the EU to be more democratic and it would be clearer to voters what the European parties stand for.
This would see the 73 European Parliament seats that will be left empty following Brexit redistributed through a transnational vote.
He said: “At last, people in Europe could vote for whoever they thought would best represent them, rather than having to choose between existing national or regional parties.”
However, last week the parliament voted against this transitional election experiment.
The 46-year-old journalist said: “It’s up to national leaders to move against the vested interests that are so bent on mystifying the voters they are meant to serve.”
This comes as a Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaf has accused leaders of killing democracy with the selection process to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission President.
He said: “Not a single voter in the member states sees this as a serious competition for the position of President of the European Commission.
“They argue trans-national lists will improve the list of top candidates, I say this: It won’t make the EU more democratic, as these top candidates are the pick of the globalist elite.”
Belgian historian David van Reybrouck has also blasted the “invisible” European Union administration for dictating the political behaviour of member states like a 20th-century colonial government.
The Belgian historian said: “The European Commission is like the colonial administrations of the past: it despises the people.
“We live under the yoke of an omnipresent administration, invisible, which controls our existence in the most minute details”.