International

The European Parliament doesn’t have much influence over foreign relations, which is why the SP’s team in Brussels has in general paid the issues involved little attention. There are, however, exceptions. Last week we had a constructive dialogue with High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton’s team – known in the jargon as her ‘services’ – on freedom of religion and conviction, a subject on which I was in 2000 awarded my doctorate. At the time I was employed by the Dutch civil service in a capacity which focused on foreign relations, so in the EP I am almost always drawn on for this expertise and one which leads to a number of concrete activities, such as last week’s meeting.

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.