International

The media are happy: Dutch MEPs will be heavily represented on important committees in the European Parliament. These include in particular the Economic Committee, which five Dutch Members will sit on. In my view this is a miscalculation: this committee has in recent years in short order approved new laws restraining speculative behaviour by financial institutions. These laws were in our opinion unsatisfactory, but the fact remains that in this matter the legislative process is almost complete, which means in a committee of this nature one will principally be debating motions on policy. The SP has consciously chosen trade and the internal market as the sharp end: my prediction is that it is in precisely these areas that there will be much to do in the coming period.

Earlier this month I was approached by the major anti-corruption organisation, Transparency International, with a request to establish ‘Intergroup’ – an all-party group of MEPs who share an interest in a particular issue. Naturally, I reacted positively. In the last few years I’ve built up an informal network, which would now have to be formalised. The first steps have been taken: numerous MEPs reacted with enthusiasm to my proposal. If the initiative is successful, we will have another pressure group to counter corruption and nepotism.

Somebody wrote to the national newspaper, De Telegraaf, as follows: ‘After the European elections you hear no more from the elected Euro-MPs. They simply go off and enjoy sitting in the sun, and meanwhile line their pockets.’ Blimey, not very encouraging if you’re just starting, as I am, a new term of office. After all the publicity it’s been given, everyone should know that the SP’s elected representatives never line their pockets, and that includes the Euro-MPs. The party’s rules and practices ensure that we all receive an income based on the average Dutch skilled worker’s wage. But that things have gone relatively quiet is true enough. The reason for this, however, is that the weeks following the elections are largely taken up with the need to deal with internal matters. So below is an overview of that process, and a little bit of an explanation for the benefit of the writer of that letter.

Today was my first day back in the European Parliament following the election campaign. The same office as I had before the campaign, yet it feels all the same like a new start. First of all because of a fantastic new colleague, Anne-Marie Mineur, who was elected as a result of receiving 52,000 first preference votes, moving her from number 3 to number 2 on the SP list of candidates. And with a partly new team, because around election time people also give serious consideration to their future and applications are received from people who are interested in strengthening the SP’s team in the Brussels. So it’s a new start, though unfortunately not with the three or four seats that we hoped to win. Still, Anne-Marie and I will just have to do the work of four. Brussels is a long way from shaking off the SP, on the other hand. In percentage terms our vote rose to such an extent that only D66 gained more in these elections.