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10 February 2013

The arrogance of Eurocrats

The Dutch Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, didn’t need long to react to the agreement on the EU’s multi-annual budget reached by the heads of government at last Friday’s European Council. She found this such an important theme that it shouldn’t be left to politicians alone. Regardless of what one may think of the substance of her critique, this is a remark which is characteristic of the Eurocrat: arrogance and a disgust with ordinary people in Europe, or at least those who don’t sing the European hymn. It is the same attitude as that shown this week by my fellow Euro-MPs when they rejected my proposals to put an end to the practice of ‘reimbursing’ expenses without the need to produce receipts. Brussels remains cocooned, indifferent to what is happening outside and mostly busy with its own affairs and on behalf of its own interests. It’s high time that we cut a swathe through this Eurocracy.

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3 February 2013

Dijsselbloem must go on the attack in Brussels

Only a few weeks after the appointment of Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem as Chair of the Eurogroup, my fear that he will find himself in an impossibly conflicted position has already been realised.

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27 January 2013

Time for a referendum

A group of leading academics writing in the prestigious national daily NRC this weekend demanded a referendum on the question of whether the Netherlands should become part of the European political union advocated by people such as Herman van Rompuy and Jose Barroso, presidents respectively of the European Council and the European Commission. Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans writes the idea off, describing it as ‘hackneyed’. At the same time a whole discussion has exploded into life on the social media, in which Europhiles are arguing that it’s not a referendum that we need, but political leadership. For the SP, however, the matter is clear. We have been for many years in favour of a referendum, because by means of so-called ‘economic governance’ a great deal of power has already been handed to Brussels without the people having been given any chance to have their say.

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20 January 2013

The struggle in Brussels over equal pay for equal work

The negotiations in the European Parliament over the proposal for improved enforcement of the posted workers’ directive, which governs the rights of workers employed by their firms to work outside their usual country of residence, is hotting up. For the SP and other left parties the battle has in the end come down to the question of enforcement of the rule of equal pay for equal work, which implies also no more lodging of Eastern Europeans in sheds and neither underpayment nor extortion via abusive employment agencies. For many right-wing parties the emphasis is certainly not on these aspects. On the contrary, they want employers saddled with as little surveillance as possible, because otherwise the free movement of services would be endangered. This division is symbolic of the enduring furious struggle for Europe’s soul. Do we want a Europe given over to the ‘free’ market, or a Europe in which human dignity occupies centre stage? The SP, of course, would choose the latter.

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13 January 2013

A Social Agenda for Europe – but which one?

It was all over Dutch television this weekend: more and more people are demanding a social agenda for Europe. Clearly a social agenda is needed, as is demonstrated by figures published this week by the European Commission which show that within the EU one in every four young people is unemployed, while one in four people is at best in danger of falling into poverty, or is already living in poverty. This can’t continue. But Eurocrats would not be Eurocrats if they didn’t immediately deduce from this that Brussels must have more power. One of the TV discussions centred on contracts between the member states and the European Commission regarding social reforms, in exchange for which countries would receive more money. If that’s Europe’s social agenda, we’d better be on our guard. A social agenda could also, however, consist of less austerity fetishism and more giving priority to social rights. That seems to me a much better way out of the crisis and out of the catastrophe that is hitting more and more ordinary people in Europe.

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6 January 2013

Another €30.000 refunded – will anyone follow suit?

Each month every Euro-MP receives €4,299 for ‘general expenses’. From this you may, for example, buy office equipment or cover the travel and hotel costs incurred by guest speakers. There is no need, however, to account for any of this spending. On 25th January I will make another attempt in the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee to address this. Every cent of taxpayers’ money should be accounted for.

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30 December 2012

Will 2013 see end of crisis in Europe?

Predictions fill the air. According to some, the economic crisis has hit bottom. Others say there’s more heavy weather on the way. Some argue that the European Council summit this month showed that we don’t need to fear still more interference from Brussels in our national socio- economic policies. Others reckon we may have another think coming. Myself, I try to be realistic: optimistic economic predictions are for the most part aimed at renewing confidence, so that we start spending again. So I don’t believe them. And one European Council that could ‘only’ reach agreement on a banking union doesn’t mean that Van Rompuy and his officials aren’t continuing to work towards a federal Europe. So my slogan for 2013 is that the SP must stay alert and not allow ourselves to be lulled to sleep.

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9 December 2012

Will Prime Minister Rutte trade the Netherlands for a job?

On 13th and 14th December the heads of state and government will meet once again at the European Council in a context in which everything and everyone, including the EU institutions, is in a complete mess. Fortunately the Dutch national Parliament will this week be meeting to discuss this summit, because in the midst of all the confusion and quarrelling, it could turn out that far from Commission president Jose Barroso, Council chair Herman Van Rompuy or European Parliament president Martin Schulz having to take a step back, it will be the national parliaments which will be required to do. Their budget rights are under threat.

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2 December 2012

The battle between Barroso and Van Rompuy

This week a report was issued by the European Commission, under its president Jose Barroso, on the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union. The timing is in no sense coincidental, because the European Council, the direct representative of the member state governments, will also be publishing a report during this month, a statement which in the first instance will be presented by its president, Herman van Rompuy, whose proposals have already been published in an interim report, of which this will be a revised version. The fight between these two gentlemen has now begun in earnest.

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25 November 2012

Doublespeak in Brussels

At the beginning of last week we voted in Strasbourg on a report on the European Monetary Union. The report contained a passage which called for a drive towards a ‘federal Europe’. If you listen to Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte, you would imagine that the two ruling parties, his own centre-right VVD and the PvdA, the Dutch Labour Party, would have immediately voted against this report. The government wants to move slowly with regard to Europe, doesn’t it? Yet the opposite turns out to be the case. Two of Labour’s three MEPs voted in favour, while the third abstained. The VVD delegation was even more divided, with one in favour, one against and one abstaining. So it’s impossible to get a handle on just where these parties really stand. That’s not good for the confidence of the Dutch voter and demonstrates once more what a mess the present coalition is.

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