Civil servants aren’t usually elected (are they ever?), would you expect these guys to be? They do differ slightly to other civil servants in that they can propose legislation, rather than just writing up legislation proposed by elected officials, but the legislation has to be approved by one or both of the elected branches (depending on the type of legislation).
This “the European Commission are just civil servants, so its fine they aren’t elected” thing is pretty misleading. As well as being the only body that can propose, amend or repeal European legislation, they are also in charge of all the executive functions of the EU, from choosing which companies are enforced against, to what action the EU diplomatic service takes, to determining the detail of billions of Euros of budgets and who gets to spend them. Moreover, unlike almost any civil servant elsewhere in the world, whilst their legislative proposals are subject to the approval of MEPs and nation states, their actions in running the executive are not. They are specifically not accountable to MEPs, who’s only sanction is to sack the whole lot en masse. Unsurprisingly, this is not often used.
To take a US example, it’s like the President being appointed, not elected, and able to decide which laws congress and the senate make.
