International

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is urging Prime Minister Mark Rutte to make the case at tonight’s European Council Summit for a social growth package. ‘Up to now the EU has tried to combat the crisis for the most part by asocial spending cuts and what we fear is that our expectations will be fulfilled: negative economic growth and social demolition. The plans currently on the table are inadequate. Rutte must make every effort to promote an ambitious agenda of economic reconstruction and growth. That is the only way out of the crisis.

The member states must be given more time to bring their budgets into line. Economic reconstruction must not be undermined by too rigid an austerity. In addition, national investment banks must guarantee loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and the European Central Bank must do more to stimulate economic growth and employment. The richer member states must put an end to wage restraint in order to offer more export opportunities to those in the south.

Lastly, just as we propose for the Netherlands, one-off investments must be brought forward in order to pull the economy out of slump. ‘A change of course is needed from austerity fundamentalism towards finding together social ways out of the crisis,’ says Van Bommel. ‘The present policy of social demolition is only increasing the conflicts between European countries and their populations and therefore putting the future of the EU at risk.’