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Blog Dennis de Jong

8 June 2014

Where are the Euro-MPs now the elections are over?

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.

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1 June 2014

Juncker – will he, won’t he?

The knives are being sharpened. British Prime Minister David Cameron doesn’t want Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel stands right behind ‘her’ candidate. The European Parliament is even threatening a veto if he doesn’t get the job, because the centre-right group – mostly Christian Democrats – the European People’s Party, is again the biggest group and so the voter has spoken. But did you really elect this Europhile who has already been in Brussels for decades? Even if you voted for an EPP affiliate such as the Dutch CDA, did you have this Luxembourger in mind as the ideal candidate? This seems to me unlikely. Nevertheless, the high-flown Punch-and-Judy show goes on. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if in the end it’s another centre-right politician at the head of the Commission.

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26 May 2014

Two for four

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.

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18 May 2014

Just four more nights to sleep

Dennis de JongJust four more days and the polling booths open for the European elections. The Netherlands is still not all that interested. Many people simply don’t have a very positive view of the European Parliament. It is indeed rather odd: a parliament with neither state nor government. But precisely because you don’t look kindly on the European Parliament and the European Union, it’s good to get along and vote. Only if the combined forces of centre-right and centre-left lose their traditional majority in the EP is there be a chance that the road to a European superstate will be abandoned. And if that isn’t reason enough, then if our own governing parties, centre-left PvdA and centre-right VVD suffer heavy losses, then we’ll be going once more to the polling booths, to elect a new national parliament in the wake of the fall of Mark Rutte’s government.

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11 May 2014

Work together in the style of the Eurovision Song Contest

Around 6.7 million Dutch people watched the Eurovision Song Contest, in stark contrast to the 350.000 viewers attracted by the first televised May Day debate between the leading candidates from each list for the European elections. Actually, this is extremely symbolic: you might not bother with the contest if you don’t like such events or simply don’t want to watch, which is fine. But the European Union is different. You can’t say no to European rules and laws if the majority decides otherwise. Hence the aversion: cooperation is distorted into a movement towards a superstate. Give me the song contest any day. No to this European Union, yes to cooperation to mutual advantage.

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4 May 2014

Rotterdam detention centre, 4th May – a mournful commemoration

This evening I am taking part in the monthly wake at the centre for the detention of foreigners – people awaiting a decision on their asylum applications, or awaiting deportation after being refused asylum. It is profoundly sad that, on the eve of the official Remembrance Day when the Dutch people remember our war dead, we must also grieve for asylum seekers who have committed suicide in the Netherlands as a result of the harsh policy of the Dutch government. If we are to respect European and international law, we must put an end as quickly as possible to the locking up of foreigners as a means of putting pressure on them to leave. One would hope that by next year no wake will be needed.

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27 April 2014

European elections and the fight for clarity

Election campaigns are always characterised by ‘framing’. Parties offer the voter a choice that best suits them. For example, the liberal Europhiles of D66 and the hard right anti-EU PVV seek each other out to make the election a duel between ‘forward with the EU’ and ‘out of the EU’. And the SP? We have nothing to do with this artificial divide. We have a unique position: not ‘out’ but ‘thorough change’ – no superstate, but honest cooperation. This is radical, but also realistic – which is why we are in the heat of battle a difficult opponent, both for the establishment as for those outside it.

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13 April 2014

The commercialisation of the Dutch state

Last year SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel put a number of questions on the matter to the government, yet this year too I received an invitation to a party that the Dutch Embassy in Brussels is organising on the occasion of our national day (Queen’s Day last year, now, following the Queen’s abdication, King’s Day, 30th April). In itself all very nice, except that it came with a card which informed us that five multinationals had covered some of the costs. That might be suitable for the King’s line of work, as he sees himself also as a commercial traveller, but I find it scandalous in relation to diplomacy, which ought to be independent of any corporate interest.

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6 April 2014

A European Commissioner for small businesses?

During last Monday’s annual debate on the State of the Union, the VVD (the larger of the two governing coalition parties) proposed that one of the twenty-eight European Commissioners be given responsibility for the EU’s policies on “SMEs” (the Euro-jargon term for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). An empty pre-election gesture. This week I joined other MEPs in proposing that in the future as much as possible of the legislation upon which the European Parliament has reached agreement should be subject to one more test to assess its consequences for SMEs. That’s no election rhetoric, but a serious attempt to prevent big business having the only say. This crowns five years on the part of the SP in the European Parliament of consistently considering the interests of small businesses.

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30 March 2014

The Commission wants to know your opinion

The Commission has opened a website on which we can all give our opinion of the treaty – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which European Commissioner for Trade Karel de Gucht is currently negotiating with the US. In particular, consultations will focus on the way in which corporate investments will be protected. I’ve taken a look at the site: on each question you get a long screed explaining how good all of the proposals are, and only then can you react. To call this manipulation is to put it mildly. De Gucht thinks that he can keep things cool until after the elections then get back down to it afterwards. The SP is completely opposed to this treaty, consultations or no consultations.

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