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25 March 2012

A grand coalition needed against petty Brussels rules

The big corporations and the SP appear to have at least one thing in common: we aren’t fond of petty Brussels rules. Of course, that isn’t the whole story. The big corporations are bothered mainly by concerns about rules which increase costs or which set limits to the market. They have set themselves squarely, for example, in favour of Brussels rules which have handed postal services over to the market. They also support the passion for spending cuts in the framework of European economic governance and all of the new rules linked to this. Naturally the SP is also utterly opposed to rules which serve no good purpose but which lead to an increase in administrative burdens. Regulation which sets a level under which the minimum wage or taxes levied on big corporations cannot fall would, however, get a hearty welcome for us. The big firms don’t want such things at all. Although therefore we are both against unnecessary rules, we differ rather a lot in opinion when it comes to the question of what is unnecessary. So it’s not easy to admit to the conclusion that, nevertheless, a grand coalition is indeed absolutely necessary to combat Brussels’ passion for regulation.

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11 March 2012

European Constitution to climb out of its coffin?

Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal announced it yesterday after a meeting in Copenhagen. Yes, he would accept the invitation of his German colleague Guido Westerwelle to participate in an informal gathering on the possibility of taking the European Constitution out of mothballs. Rosenthal wasn’t all that enthusiastic about the initiative, but all the same he would take part in the meeting. This shows how great is the gap between the ‘top’ and the ‘ordinary member of the public’, the latter having made it quite clear in the Netherlands in 2005 that he or she had no need for such. With the Treaty of Lisbon most of what the European Constitution would have specified, very much against the will of all those no-voters, was in any case introduced, but apparently the flag and anthem, the only elements which weren’t taken up by the Treaty, must still be instituted.

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4 March 2012

Elections for the EP

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.

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26 February 2012

The Criminal Law and Europe

This week the European Parliament will be for the first time discussing my report on criminal law, in which I make a number of proposals designed to erect a dam against the haphazard approach by which ever more areas of European criminal law are coming into being, without our being able to monitor the process closely. When it comes to the criminal law we need to proceed with great caution, as it almost always concerns human rights and, furthermore, differences between member states are rooted in tradition and culture. Consider as examples the Netherlands’ regulation of abortion or euthanasia, or our policies in relation to drugs. So it’s imperative not to let the European bull loose in this china shop.

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19 February 2012

Almost unnoticed, Commission publishes first stats on economic imbalances

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.

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12 February 2012

Of trust and frontiers

In many areas Brussels proceeds from the view that the member states should simply trust each other. This goes for the national bookkeeping of the Eurozone countries, although in the wake of the Greek fraud we are seeing an excess of control from the EU authorities.

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5 February 2012

Coup d’état by Goldman Sachs?

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.

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29 January 2012

Putting public contracts out to tender

This week in the European Parliament we will be debating for the first time new European Commission proposals on the tendering of contracts. This might seem a bit of a dull subject, but in fact it will involve every member of a local or regional council. Think for a moment of the fact that the home helps service has been ‘put out to tender’. In practice this meant that organisations providing care of this kind tendered such low bids that home helps lost not only wages but their dignity, while at the same time the quality of care declined. Local authorities could make savings, but at the cost of human dignity. Even under the present European rules this fanatical commitment to this approach to tendering was not compulsory, but the new proposals will make it easier to prioritise decent working conditions and conditions of service for the employees and the quality of care provided, rather than the lowest price. This will give the SP’s local and regional councillors more opportunities to reject plans to base decisions on public services on the lowest price, with no thought for human dignity.

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22 January 2012

Europhiles in distress

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.

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15 January 2012

For half of European public, fight against poverty is top priority

This week saw the results published of the most recent opinion poll of 26,000 citizens of the EU member states. Just as in the last survey, conducted in April-May 2011, poverty turns out to be the number one priority for around half of those interviewed. Second in the list comes a more coordinated economic policy, named by more than one in three respondents. Add these two stats together, and it isn’t hard to see that the existing agreements between the heads of government won’t wash. These are aimed exclusively at cutting spending and do nothing at all to combat poverty. A poverty test, assessing the effects of new proposals on low income individuals and households, is badly needed. Confidence in the European Parliament amongst the European public is weak, the survey also showed. If the EP wants to do something about that, then it’s time it presented a more social face. In the next few weeks we will be looking at whether, despite the right-wing majority in the EP, sufficient support can nevertheless be found for the imposition of such a poverty test when it comes to the implementation of the agreements on economic governance.

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