Jesus, that's insane. The Commission is made up of political appointments. They are not selected by their national electorates and they cannot be withdrawn by their national electorates except as a (most likely incidental) consequence of a change in national government. That is "accountability" only in a really really loose sense and I doubt that any leftist would describe it as such in any other circumstance.
Under the Lisbon Treaty some member states will not even be represented on the Commission.
> Over time, the Parliament has been gaining power. Not as much as I'd like, but you have
> to start somewhere.
That sounds like an admission that there isn't really very much democratic control over the EU. Anyway, the amount of power that Parliament has gained pales in comparison to the amount of power going to the other institutions.
> I lived and studied two years in Germany, 1994-1996, and I've closely
> followed the construction and expansion of the EU for eleven years now, in
> print, media, press, aesthetics, films, you name it.
Well it's interesting that your views are so at odds with those of the European left (and I mean the *left*, not centre-left like the British and Irish Labour parties etc).
> I'm not sure people realize just how far gone the US Empire really is...Compared to this, the EU looks pretty good.
I don't think anyone here is arguing that the US is better than the EU - just that your view of the latter is very blinkered. You're also ignoring the extent to which the powers-that-be in the EU are seeking to move it closer and closer to a US model ... including increasing its military and police powers. There's already been a raft of these changes in recent years and it's only going to get worse.