International

Today I was a guest in the Karaktur Political Café in Breda, debating with the Christian Democrat MEP Wim van der Camp. Van der Camp said that cooperation between the parties in Brussels was such that he felt it was time that the SP took its turn in government.

Dennis de Jong at the Karaktur Political Café

In an hour and a half you of course can’t cover every subject of relevance in Brussels, but thanks to fine organisation we did get through such matters as wastefulness, the influence of major corporations, unnecessary regulation, and others. Although the discussion revealed that there were a number of things on which we could agree, there are also huge differences between the two parties. It was really disappointing to hear Wim van der Camp defend cold-hearted cuts in financial support for social workplaces, while he seemed completely uninterested in the fortunes of small businesses, which can expect little from Brussels. I’ve therefore invited him to visit a number of social workplaces and small firms with me. Working in Brussels it’s important to keep both feet on the ground.

While the Christian Democrats are happy enough with Brussels’ social policy, I hammered away at the fact that the EU is, as things stand, governed primarily by major corporations and speculators. Even government leaders are terrified of the financial markets, and I agreed wholeheartedly with comments from the person chairing the debate to the effect that it was not the public but big firms and banks who are the bosses in Brussels.

As long as Brussels devotes itself to the cause of lower wages and pensions, and for ‘flexible employment’ rather than steady and rewarding work, we in the SP will have no choice but to fight them as hard as we can. We have no need of Brussels when it comes to wages and pensions, though concrete measures should indeed be taken, such as the introduction of a European minimum wage (expressed as a percentage of the national average income), in order eventually to make the EU more socially progressive.