International

Last Wednesday Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who also chairs the Eurogroup, expressed concerns over the gap between the broad social discussion of the euro and what is really happening in Brussels. In his own words, ‘If we politicians can’t manage to formulate an answer, then I think things are looking bleak.’ What he is thinking of in saying this is the need to improve communication and strengthen democracy. The core of the problem does not, however, lie there. If the gap between politicians and the public has to be closed, then we should be having a fundamental discussion about the euro, and politicians must admit that to date the eurocrisis has been addressed via half-measures which have only served to inflame anti-European feelings north and south.

Last week there was something of a commotion over the German social democrat European Parliament Chair Martin Schulz’s idea that next week’s vote on the multi-annual budget should be held behind closed doors.

On a Dutch television programme this weekend, European Council president Herman van Rompuy mentioned a couple of times the fact that the European Parliament is directly elected. Just as heads of government try to unload responsibility on to their national parliaments, he claims that the EP is responsible for generating the necessary support. Europhile parties such as the Netherlands’ Green Left and D66 often cite the strengthening of the European Parliament as a solution to Europe’s democratic deficit. But is there really support for such solutions? This week the leading Europe-wide opinion pollster Eurobarometer published the results of a new survey revealing that in the Netherlands the number of people who want to see the EP strengthened has fallen from 53% to 47% since November 2011 and that at the present time 35% of Dutch people want it to play a smaller role, up from 30% in 2011. In order to attract support we must therefore first and foremost strengthen the national parliaments. The EP can play an important supplementary role, but is no panacea for the democratic deficit.

The Dutch Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, didn’t need long to react to the agreement on the EU’s multi-annual budget reached by the heads of government at last Friday’s European Council. She found this such an important theme that it shouldn’t be left to politicians alone. Regardless of what one may think of the substance of her critique, this is a remark which is characteristic of the Eurocrat: arrogance and a disgust with ordinary people in Europe, or at least those who don’t sing the European hymn. It is the same attitude as that shown this week by my fellow Euro-MPs when they rejected my proposals to put an end to the practice of ‘reimbursing’ expenses without the need to produce receipts. Brussels remains cocooned, indifferent to what is happening outside and mostly busy with its own affairs and on behalf of its own interests. It’s high time that we cut a swathe through this Eurocracy.