International

As I write it is still not clear whether the member state government leaders will be able to reach an agreement on Greece. However that may be, what is clear is that the interests of big capital and financial institutions will be secured and that only when that is achieved might it be possible to discuss measures to help ordinary people. This fits into a well-known pattern: nepotism, which government leaders want to put an end to in Greece, is an everyday occurrence in Brussels. Now, new instruments provided by Transparency International and Politico.eu make it possible for anyone to see how things are set. They don’t provide a lot of laughs, but what they do offer are a number of clues by which you can unmask puppets of the multinationals such as Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE/ADLE).

I have on a number of occasions in my weeklog been critical of the European Parliament president, German social democrat Martin Schulz. Now, with his interference in the Greek referendum, I have to say enough is enough. Reportedly he even tried to reach agreement with the political establishment in the EP that from now all political groups on the left and right side would be subject to a complete boycott. For the most part, when politicians lose elections, they step down. As Schulz had made the Greek referendum his own, and one which he lost by a large margin, I would say to him: be a democrat and draw your conclusions. Rather Schulzexit than Grexit.

The SP repeatedly warned that the introduction of the euro would undermine democracy. The rejection of Greece's referendum by the eurozone Finance Ministers shows the extent of the arrogance of power amongst them. The report of the 'five presidents' of European institutions, presented this week, seeks to reinforce the power of technocrats. From now onwards there will therefore be every reason to step up our struggle for real democracy in Europe. The public must have its say; the technocrats have already done enough damage.

Last week the leader of the liberal ALDE European Parliament political group, Guy Verhofstadt, outlined his soon-to-be-presented report on the amendment of the EU treaties. As you might expect from a federalist, he wants to move to a real European government, but at the same time he does introduce the possibility of an associate membership for those countries which see no advantage to such a federal Europe. That would offer, to the Netherlands as well as other member states, the chance to opt out of certain matters, such as the United Kingdom already enjoys, for example in the area of justice, This fits nicely with the SP’s own programme, so it’s certainly worth studying.