International

No, the elections for the European Parliament have not been brought forward and are still planned for 2014. Nevertheless they’re already being spoken of in the EP in an excited manner. There is now a proposal to have two lists: one, as now, a national list with national parties. But in addition there would be, were the proposal adopted, 25 seats (from the existing total of 754) reserved for European candidates. As if anyone wanted such a thing. In the EP it’s still not understood that ‘Europe’ for most people is a somewhat abstract concept, just as would be ‘European’ parties. So we shouldn’t be acting as if the public was indeed interested in European candidates instead of national candidates.

Last week, as part of its new economic governance, the European Commission produced its first report on ‘macro-economic imbalances’. Despite being extremely important, the report gained little attention in the media,. Twelve countries were, in the first instance, picked on to be examined by the Commission regarding matters such as export position, changes in wage levels, pensions, the housing market, and so on. These countries, which don’t include the Netherlands, are now being subjected to a close investigation. The expectation is that they’ll be getting a kick in the pants, and if things are bad enough and too little is done about these imbalances, they’ll be faced with billions in sanctions. So economic governance is now up and running, without anyone having been given the chance to have their say via referenda or elections. Some people will be very happy about this, and that goes for big corporations and the banks, but for ordinary people it’s a sad development.

This week it became known that Goldman Sachs has big plans for the extension of its banking activities in Europe. Because many European banks are engaged in repositioning, whereby they are withdrawing from some of their riskier activities – even though they have not been forced to do so - space is being created in the sector. It is galling to note that one of the banks which nurtured this current crisis apparently has the wind behind it to such an extent that it can breeze still further into Europe. In this it will meet little resistance from either member state governments or EU institutions, given that an impressive number of EU big cheeses have or have had links to Goldman Sachs. This confirms once again the image of a Europe dominated by a network of bankers and business people. Happily this is striking ever more people and hopefully we can stand up against it. After all, this concerns nothing more or less than our democracy.

Today I almost fell off my chair when I read the interview with my PvdA (Labour Party) colleague in the European Parliament, Thijs Berman, on the Dutch news and opinion website Nu.nl . In his opinion the SP’s plans would in the long term lead to tragedy, in the Netherlands but most especially in Europe. He adheres to the formula applied by all Europhiles, alleging that the SP is against Europe. Evidently the Europhiles are currently feeling so frustrated by the total lack of support from ordinary people, that they can offer nothing but lies and distortions in the hope of generating agreement. I can quickly disabuse them of this dream: contrary to what they think, many people in the Netherlands have given a great deal of thought to the question of Europe. They are keen to cooperate with other countries, but have had enough of the surreptitious manner in which ever more powers are being transferred to Brussels without they themselves being able to exercise any real influence on this process. In the EP I vote in favour of many sound European laws and the SP cooperates with others to work towards a fair, social and humane Europe. But we are not about to impose a ‘United States of Europe’ on our population, which has in fact absolutely no desire for any such thing. In my view this is what is known as democracy.