International

A further enlargement of the European Union is not, the SP believes, a good idea. According to European affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel, the EU's existing probems must first be resolved. “The European family is in crisis, and during a family crisis adding to the family is simply foolish,” said the SP Member of Parliament.

If it were up to Harry van Bommel, for the time being an end would be put to any enlargement. Romania and Bulgaria are set to become, in 2007 or 2008, the EU's twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh member states. The SP would prefer to see this enlargement postponed. As Van Bommel sees it, “It is reform of the EU rather than enlargement which should now take priority. There should also be no 'B'-grade membership, which would give the impressiuon that the confusion is merely being compounded.”

The SP believes that the existing problems of the EU must first of all be resolved. “An end must be put to Brussels' meddling. Only a renewed focus on the Union's core tasks can ensure that Europe doesn't find itself further mired in impotence. Only when the Europe has put its own house in order can we start to speak of the possible enlargement of the Union.”