International

Shortly in the European Parliament we’ll be discussing once more the annual report on EU competition policy. You’d be amazed by what’s possible. European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager recently answered my letter on Bayer’s takeover of Monsanto by saying she had received as yet no report of this, but she would certainly be looking into it. In my view the takeover should, however, have set alarm bells ringing, not only because of Monsanto’s questionable reputation, but principally because it raises the question as to when enough is enough, and when corporations become ‘too big to fail’. We have absolutely no need for such a chemical industry giant. If a takeover of this kind van happen under the existing policy, then in my view that policy should be changed.

The national daily NRC’s comments on the possible re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party are strange indeed. Apparently his re-election would mean that Labour will be out of power for the next twenty years. Pure tunnel vision: apparently only parties that continue to believe in the market as a solution for everything can expect to be elected to government. We in the SP believe in people’s power. If hundreds of thousands voted for Corbyn and in doing so voted also for an end to the neoliberal thought which has characterised Labour since Tony Blair, it isn’t a ticket for permanent opposition, but the beginning of a new era.

First of all ex-European Commissioner Neelie Kroes wrote a strongly-worded letter to The Guardian: her successor, the Dane Margrethe Verstager , must not interfere with the tax agreements between member states and multinationals like Apple.  Then, two members of the centre-left Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) repeated the argument in the Dutch daily De Telegraaf.  Apple has lobbyists everywhere. I would have expected this from Neelie Kroes, who is up to her ears in the world of the multinationals. That PvdA members lend themselves to it, however, is disappointing. That we shouldn't be putting ourselves in the hands of the European Commission when it comes to taxation policy is something that I have always argued.  And multinationals must one way or another start to pay a decent amount of tax, though neither Neelie Kroes nor the Labourites seem to be able to get this through their skulls. 

In September the European Parliament will begin its deliberations on the proposals from the Belgian Liberal Guy Verhofstadt for a superstate complete with European ministers. At the same time four eastern member states, including Slovakia, which since 1st July has held the EU’s rotating presidency, have announced their intentions to come up with concrete proposals for a looser EU, one in which national parliaments would have more say. We in the SP are against a superstate, because we believe in giving as much control as possible to people over their own lives and their own surroundings. So we see the clash between Verhofstadt – and likely many other MEPs – and the Slovakian EU presidency as a chance to present our own ideas - such as the abolition of the European Commission - formally in both the Dutch national Parliament and the EP.