International

The European project is under threat of collapse, and from every side. Instead of further enlargement, the EU should be working on alternative forms of cooperation, argues Harry van Bommel.

Recent weeks have seen a flood of media coverage of scandals, with former European Commissioners in the leading roles. In order to prevent a repeat of such scandals, Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has adopted a number of new measures. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong isn’t satisfied by Juncker’s actions, however.

The European Parliament is not doing its job, and is thus risking undermining the rule of law in Europe. This was the SP’s response to the Parliament’s refusal to subject the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada to tests of its compatibility with European law. The arbitration system established by the treaty is particularly controversial.

The Netherlands must say no to a European Public Prosector’s Office, SP Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen demanded during Wednesday’s parliamentary debate. “The European Union is once again demonstrating that it is insatiably hungry for new powers,” said Van Nispen. “A European PPO isn’t needed and certainly isn’t to be desired, because the member states themselves control their own criminal law and decide how to deploy the capacities of their police and prosecution services. Which criminal acts we prosecute and which we don’t, where our priorities lie, these are things that the Netherlands decides for itself and that’s how it should stay.”

Our draft manifesto for the parliamentary elections next March contains a chapter on European cooperation. This is a logical inclusion, because European and national policy are absolutely interconnected. The manifesto is critical, as was the manifesto for the European elections in 2014. That too is logical, because the EU hasn’t improved at all since then: still more neoliberal policy and a European Commission which calls itself ‘the most political ever.’

Never before has a demonstration in Brussels had such a rapid effect. On the same day that 20,000 steelworkers from across Europe took to the streets of Brussels to protest against the dumping of Chinese steel on the European market, the European Commission proposed fresh measures to counteract it. In addition, thanks to a motion proposed in the national Parliament in The Hague by Socialist Party MP Sharon Gesthuizen, the Netherlands will be obliged on this occasion to cooperate in bringing about the proposed measures.

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel has reacted angrily to the arrest of a number of prominent pro-Kurdish politicians in Turkey. “More than ten democratically elected representatives have been dragged from their beds,” says Van Bommel. “This is the umpteenth illustration of the fact that Turkey has thrown the principles of the democratic rule of law overboard. The country’s accession talks on EU membership must be suspended with immediate effect and arms exports immediately restricted.”

The European Commission’s Ethics Committee today published its advice regarding the appointment of former Commission president Jose Barroso to investment bank Goldman Sachs.