International

The 'populist rebellion' against the current European Union is often mentioned in the same breath as the fear of globalisation. The answer from the existing political elite, headed up by French president Emmanuel Macron, who in his own country is pushing through harsh neoliberal reforms, is that it is precisely the EU that can protect people from globalisation. This kind of prattle, however, can be consigned to the dustbin. 

When the city of Hamburg decided to introduce stricter environmental regulations in order to protect, amongst other things, access to drinking water, energy giant Vattenfall registered a protest. The company demanded a cool €1.4 billion, because it perceived the reform as a threat to potential future profits. The case was in the end hastily settled and Hamburg came away with nothing worse than a scare, but the city did readjust its environmental regulations. As a result, the German government was in its turn subject to a legal complaint from the European Commission, on the grounds that the country no longer fulfilled the requirements of the EU Habitats Directive. This is just one of countless examples of investors from outside the country in question claiming enormous damages for the simple reason that a decision, taken democratically, has put downward pressure on its expected profits. Even when this does not lead to an verdict favourable to the plaintiff, it sometimes manages to seriously undermine democracy.

Don't forget! On 23rd May elections will be held for the European Parliament. The SP's two MEPs are both standing down, and as well as offering a few tips to those who will be seeking to replace them, they discuss their achievements.

Following hours of debate and months of preparatory work, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) this week agreed to proposals from SP Senator Tiny Kox aimed at improving the functioning of the Assembly and the Council of which it forms part.

With an eye on Britain's departure from the European Union, the Dutch government has been given a mandate by Parliament to take measures, should they see it as necessary, without the approval or involvement of the legislature, even if these measures go against current law. In the view of SP Senator Bastiaan van Apeldoorn, Parliament should not be cooperating in its exclusion in this way, which is why the party voted against the Brexit Law during yesterday's session. “Of course the SP approves of the government making preparations for Brexit and what Brexit will mean for the Netherlands,” says Van Apeldoorn. “This law, however, gives far-reaching emergency powers to the government without giving any decent definition of an 'emergency'.”

The European Parliament today adopted the now notorious directive on authors' rights. The SP abstained in the vote. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong explains: “It remained a difficult decision right to the end. As I wrote recently, it's important to us that artists receive a fair reward for their creativity. But we don't want to see disproportionate filters when you upload something. Unfortunately we weren't successful in having the directive completely clarified on this point. The intention was good, to make the tech giants pay artists for their products. The SP will continue to work for this in the Dutch Parliament. But this directive was still so unclear that we felt we had to abstain.”