Actually a republic was proposed and quickly discarded as no one was willing to relinquish sovereignty.
That's unfortunate because they pretty much gave up their sovereignty anyways.
Not quite. While the citizens of each EU country-members do not vote for the EU Commissioners, the Commissioners are appointed by each nation's government. Voter's elect the Parliament (in the case of the UK) and the Parliament selects the EU Commissioner to represent their country. In the same vein, the UK's Parliamentary system, voters elect Members of Parliament, who in turn select the Prime Minister - no citizen votes for the Prime Minister.
see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commissioner
