Who are the un-elected officials?
The EU consists of three bodies, of which the first two have the decisive power:
- Council: Led by the the national governments (AKA Cameron, Merkel, etc.). These are elected/chosen according to the national member state law.
- Parliament: MEPs which are members of parliament that were all voted on during the European elections. No middle-man at all.
- Commission (no decisive power, only proposes things): Led by 28 Commissioners, each from a Member State, which were chosen/co-opted by the national governments and confirmed by MEPs. E.g. Lord Hill who was chosen by Cameron and the Tory party, plus confirmed by the MEPs in the Parliament.
Also the President of the Commission, Juncker, was chosen by the EPP party because they attained the majority in the Parliament. It was quite clear during the election cycle that a vote for the EPP would be a vote for Juncker (and vice versa Schulz for the S&D).
Where do you draw the line between being elected or not? Obviously the Commission is the 'least' elected, as they were not directly voted on by citizens but rather by the national goverments and the European Parliament (who each were directly voted on). The Commission is also the least powerful since everything has to pass through Council and Parliament.
It's the same system in Belgium for instance: I vote for a political group who gets the seats in our House of Representatives and Senate, and they then decide on the Government/Ministers (AKA Commission).