SP International :: Goals

A better Europe starts now

Chapter 6

An affordable European Union

Total EU spending in recent years has reached almost 100 billion euros. The Dutch share of receipts over the period to 2006 will remain largely unchanged, while contributions will grow as a result of the costs of enlargement and an increase in payments from the structural funds. This means that the net position for 2004-2006 deteriorated further when compared to the 2003 level. The Netherlands is invariably one of the biggest net payers into the EU. The contribution expressed in euros per head of the population grew from 180 in 2003 to 194 in 2004 to an expected 250 or even 300 in 2006. It is an urgent necessity to limit EU spending and rein in the Dutch net contribution. In regard to the latter the Dutch government has stipulated that there will be a billion euro reduction in payments from Netherlands to the EU from 2007, though it is as yet unclear just what effect this will have on the net contribution.

As well as being excessive, European spending lacks transparency. For the eleventh time in succession, in 2006 the European Court of Auditors came to the conclusion that just where the EU had spent its money was completely unclear. At the request of the SP, Dutch finance minister Geert

Zalm promised to put pressure on his colleagues over this matter. But the fault does not lie exclusively with Brussels. The Netherlands' own equivalent of the EU's Court of Auditors, the Algemene Rekenkamer, stated in 2006 in a devastating report that expenditure of the sum of around 2 billion euros received by the Netherlands from Brussels in 2004 was also insufficiently transparent.

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PROPOSALS FOR AN AFFORDABLE EU

Limit the EU budget

A Europe with fewer ambitions means a Europe which spends less. The European budget must shrink rather than grow during the next few years. In any case, under current conditions the budget may not exceed 1% of the EU's total Gross National Income (GNI), which in 2006 was about 860 billion euros.

Reduce the Dutch contribution if annual accounts are rejected by Auditors

If the EU's annual accounts are in the future once again rejected by the Court of Auditors, the Netherlands must reduce its contribution to the Union. In the most extreme case the contribution should even be suspended. If the European Parliament rejects the annual accounts, the European Commission must accept its responsibility and resign. In order to improve the transparency of spending of EU moneys in the member states, member states should be obliged to account for all expenditure.

Stability Pact

The 'Stability Pact', which applies to all countries belonging to the European Union's 'eurozone', obliges participating states to limit inflation, state deficits and debts, and long-term interest rates. By these means ever more far-reaching convergence of the economies of the participating countries is to be achieved, along with the monitoring of the stability of their common currency, the euro. A stable euro is in the interest of all participants in this European Monetary Union (EMU). However, these criteria restrict the choices available to member state governments, who are forced to conduct their political affairs within the limits imposed by an extremely liberalised market economy.

EMU has done away with, or reined in, the traditional competences of a national government. National monetary competences, exercised under national democratic supervision, have been handed over to the politically independent European Central Bank (ECB). Countries within the eurozone can no longer take any national monetary measures – such as devaluation or fixing of interest rates – and their possibilities of taking socio-economic measures at national level are severely limited. The criteria for government deficit and debt can force member states into rapid and extensive spending cuts, against the wishes of their own populations. Yet it turns out that not all member states are held to equal account by the European Commission and the ECB when it comes to the Stability Pact criteria. Big countries such as France and Germany have been allowed substantially more room for manoeuvre when it comes, for instance, to government deficits and debts, than is the case for smaller countries such as the Netherlands, Greece or Portugal, each of which has been threatened with sky-high fines should they fail to meet these criteria. This is unacceptable. All member states should be treated in the same fashion. If there are reasons to adapt the criteria for big countries, smaller countries should also be allowed this space. And if small countries are refused such room for manoeuvre, then so should the bigger member states be.

Reforming the structural funds

The subsidies which the Netherlands receives from Brussels are often intended for the support of projects where the need for any European initiative is lacking. What, for example, is the European interest served by providing more than 4 million euros for cycle paths in Drenthe? Where is the cross-border interest in financing a competition for the best garden in the Amsterdam district of Oud-West? If these things are felt to be needed, then it's logical for the Dutch authorities to provide the money. Instead of the pointless circulation of structural funds money amongst rich member states, the money would be better spent on supporting the development of pre-accession countries and new member states in eastern Europe.

A single meeting place for the EP

Before the enlargement of the EU in 2004 by a total of ten new member states, the maintenance of two meeting places for the European Parliament entailed an additional cost of 200 million euros. Since the enlargement, this figure has grown even higher. This is money simply wasted. An end must be put to this monthly removal circus between Brussels and Strasbourg and one location definitively chosen. As long as this does not happen, not only money but the public's confidence in the institution will be thrown away: a million signatures were recently collected in favour of scrapping the double-seat system. And confidence in the European Union is already in short supply!

[ Summary - The debate on Europe is on its way! - European cooperation – a good idea - A more democratic Europe - A slimmed-down Europe - The size of the European Union - A fruitful agricultural policy - An affordable European Union ]