International

The European Commission today presented its annual growth strategy aimed at devising a way out of the crisis. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong, responding to the Commission’s proposals, said: ‘The European Commission appears at last to have realised that making people redundant and lowering incomes is no solution to the crisis. There are, however, no concrete measures to help people get back to work. Instead what’s once again urged is an increase in VAT, which will means ordinary people will have even less purchasing power. In short the wrong solutions are recommended, which will mean that the crisis will only deepen further.’

Although the European Commission states in its plans that it wishes to attack youth unemployment and invest in education and innovation, it continues to impose spending cuts on the Netherlands and other member states. ‘This means that there is no room for the member states to make badly-needed investments,’ De Jong points out. ‘At the same time the Commission itself of course wants more money to boost the economy via EU-projects which we see announced on massive hoardings, and for which plenty of money continues to be available. The opposite would be a more effective and also much more efficient way of proceeding – more national investments and less pumping back and forth of funds between national capitals and Brussels via the EU’.

The Commission did announce measures to counter tax evasion and the persistent tax competition between member states, because of which major corporations, by means of aggressive ‘tax planning’ pay far lower taxers than do ordinary private citizens or small businesses. ‘Next week the European Commission will bring forward developed proposals on these matters,’ says De Jong. ‘In the eyes of many EU member states the Dutch tax regime has become a stumbling block. I hope that the Commission, in contrast to the Dutch government, will act to put an end to the “tax haven Netherlands”’.