International

Negotiations on the European law governing access to documents at EU institutions – a European Freedom of Information Act - are fully under way. The European Parliament is fighting a lonely battle in regard to these negotiations. Neither the European Commission, nor the member states, which are directly represented in the Council, are willing to reveal too much. You might have expected a different attitude, at least from the Commission, which spends millions on giving out ‘information’. But it is clearly not their intention to aid the critical member of the public. The SP takes people seriously. We don’t see them as a target group whom we must ‘inform’, but as individuals who have the right to honest and comprehensive information. That’s what we will continue to fight for in the EP.

The leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, has together with others brought out a manifesto, calling on all young people in Europe to sign up to it. That sounds like a good move from a former activist, but the document in question is full of hollow phrases and empty of social proposals. The EU member states have, according to Cohn-Bendit, made a real mess of things, and only Europe can help young people to move on. This is to stand the world on its head : it is precisely Brussels, with its fetishisism of austerity, which is exacerbating the crisis. Cohn-Bendit completely ignores this question. In my view, his manifesto is fit only for the waste-paper basket.

Yesterday Geert Wilders, leader of the hard right PVV, pointed to the European Union when he withdrew his support for the government’s planned round of further spending cuts. And today centre-left leader Francois Hollande came out on top in the first round of the French Presidential elections. One of his themes was that he would if elected reject Merkel’s Budgetary Pact, the treaty which further tightens the budgetary rules for Eurozone countries, as it is not a measure which would promote growth. National elections and European themes are thus becoming intertwined, which is of course logical, because through ‘economic governance’ Brussels is exercising ever more influence on national policy.

The Commission has once again had an idea: there should be a ranking of higher education in Europe, and for that purpose a new European system should be developed, to be called U-Multirank. This is an action which typifies the way Brussels sees higher education. Here too we must have the market, as this will ensure that the best result is reached. For this it’s necessary that universities compete with each other, and the ranking system will help. The point supposedly is to enable the student to make a well-informed choice, especially when it concerns a university outside their own member state, because it’s then that the European market works best. You would think that the influence of such neoliberal notions would have diminished in Brussels following the financial crisis and the many incidents involving fraud and speculation by executives, but no, the Commission carries on regardless. In the SP’s view, education is not a market and we therefore see no sense in ranking. I shall be doing my best in the European Parliament to shoot down U-Multirank, although that won’t be easy as long as there remains a right-wing majority.