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10 June 2012

Does Europe have a radiant future?

The Dutch centrist party D66 this week published its vision of Europe’s future, which it goes so far as to describe as ‘radiant’. This seems fine, and idealistic. Yet read it more closely and you will see that the vision continues to be based on outmoded neoliberal ideas. The European Union’s goal is first and foremost to become an economic bloc that can compete with other continents. Humanity and certainly the human scale are to be subordinated to this. For the SP this is to put things upside down: we put people at the centre and listen to all of those Dutch people who say that everything is getting rather difficult, that we must ensure that national democracy is not undermined by Brussels and that we keep government for the most part close to home, without interference from Brussels.

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3 June 2012

Brussels’ mania for organisation costs dear

At the moment Brussels is sending out extremely mixed signals. Commissioner Rehn, a.k.a. the Commission’s Budget Tsar, remains strict in relation to countries such as the Netherlands: we shall and must come under the maximum budgetary deficit of 3% by 2013, or there’ll be the devil to pay. At the same time Brussels is saddling national governments with expensive projects and continues to dream up programmes which will cost us all deep in the purse, yet whose added value is far from clear. High time that we in the SP European Parliament team put such inconsistencies on the agenda.

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27 May 2012

A small town in Holland and the European emergency fund

Last week the national Parliament voted in favour of the Netherlands participating in the new EU superfund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Should the Senate do the same, it will be extremely difficult to turn the whole thing around and the Netherlands will be forced to pay out or give guarantees for up to €40 billion. Once again the Europhiles are making a mistake in their thinking. By adopting an accelerated decision-making procedure they sought to avoid ordinary people having the chance to express their views on the ESM via their votes during the coming elections, on the ESM. Such an arrogant attitude guarantees still more scepticism over Europe, as we saw during the SP’s continuing ‘Tour d’Europe’, when it visited the small town of Purmerend, built on land reclaimed from the sea – the ‘polder’ – on Friday. People are extremely concerned about the financial consequences of participation in a fund of this kind, especially at a time where spending cuts are everywhere.

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20 May 2012

The fight for greater openness

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.

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13 May 2012

What is the EU task force up to in Greece?

Few will disagree that things aren’t going at all well for Greece. In addition to an economic crisis, there is now a political crisis. Hopefully, in new elections the SP’s sister party, Syriza, will emerge from the polling booths as the biggest force and at last a real recovery can be brought about in Greece.

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9 May 2012

The useless manifesto of Daniel Cohn-Bendit

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.

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29 April 2012

Strange procedures in Brussels

Looking at developments in The Hague, I am struck by one thing: nobody raises any longer the question of whether the Brussels procedures, those which might be put into the framework of ‘economic governance’, are compatible with national democracy. Yet at the same time these procedures have been declared holy and inviolable.

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22 April 2012

Elections and Europe

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.

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15 April 2012

EU imposes VAT on solidarity shops

Last week it was reported in the media that Oxfam’s solidarity shops in the Netherlands and elsewhere which have a turnover of less than €68,000 per year will lose their current exemption from Value Added Tax. Oxfam and a range of organisations run shops in the Netherlands, Belgium and other European countries where goods are sold to raise money to finance their global development work and to the benefit of the people who make the goods, usually individuals or cooperatives from deprived regions in poor countries. Imposing VAT on the smallest of them could kill these outlets. The exemption must be removed as a result of an EU Directive of 2007. In a last attempt to change this decision, I intend to ask the European Commission to bring a new proposal forward. Until then the Commission should simply leave a country such as the Netherlands in peace, and the government should be prepared to defer the measure. I can’t promise anything, but you must in any case try.

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1 April 2012

Ranking of universities? No thanks!

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.

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