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. 

The SP manifesto for the European elections, May 23rd 2019

The European Court of Justice is about to decide whether the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in EU trade agreements is compatible with EU law.

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.

Arnout Hoekstra and Sadet Karabalut

For decades we were told that the EU was an organisation dedicated to peace. Previously warlike countries were now working together because  the EU and its forerunners, had now dissuaded them from going to war with each other. This appearance can no longer be maintained. The established parties have opted for far-reaching militarisation and a new Cold War with Russia. In the years to come, billions of euros are to be freed up to subsidise major European arms corporations. That is an undesirable development which presents an enormous danger to our security. 

It could scarcely be more symbolic. On May 9, Europe Day, the great and the good of the European elite assemble in a picturesque village in Romania, the EU's most corrupt country, a country which is currently heavily interfering with the rule of law in order to enable politicians who have been found guilty of fraud to avoid punishment. An excellent place to have an informal chat about the future of the European Union. It could scarcely be more symbolic, but it could certainly also hardly be more cynical.

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.

The Senate's annual debate on the state of Europe and the European Union – known by its Dutch initials as the AEB – was this year even more important than usual, as SP Senator Bastiaan van Apeldoorn noted in his contribution to the discussion. "On 23rd May we elect the European Parliament in the midst of Brexit, discussions around NATO, China and a European army, and an ever more unpredictable United States under President Trump, he said. “The SP shows that there's more to vote for than on the one side europhoric parties that want nothing more than to give more power to Brussels and on the other side xenophobic nationalists looking to turn their backs on European cooperation and do nothing about cross-border problems.”

The European Parliament votes today on the establishment of a European Labour Authority, a new agency to monitor the application of labour laws in the EU. In the SP's view this is a bad idea, as SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong explains: “Brussels keeps coming up with false solutions for problems which are in reality a direct result of the free movement of labour. Exploitation of Spanish workers in the Netherlands won't be solved by a new agency in Cyprus or Slovakia. What's needed is for the capacity of national inspectorates to be sufficient for them to be able to do their work. Cooperation with other member states on cross-border issues can be handled via the existing European network, so there's no need for a new institution. This plan is just hot air.”