International

The European Parliament appears to be supporting the member state government leaders’ austerity policies. This emerged this morning during the debate on the Parliament’s proposals on combating the crisis. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong directed his comments during the debate not only to fellow MEPs, but also to the Dutch government and its policies. ‘That the Dutch Labour Party is going along with these austerity policies is completely incomprehensible,’ he said. ‘I call on social democrats in the European Parliament to distance themselves from their Dutch colleagues and to support instead an intelligent and therefore a flexible application of the 3% norm. Only in this way can Europe’s economies be put back on their feet.’

The government must abandon its resistance to annulment of the Greek debt. Postponement would only mean still more damage to both the Greek and the Dutch economy, argues SP Member of Parliament and economics spokesman Arnold Merkies in the run-up to the debate on his initiative on Greece. ‘Spending cuts are not going to reverse the current economic shrinkage,’ says Merkies. 'Such cuts will even work in the opposite direction. At the same time EU governments have only saddled Greece with more debts. A one-off total solution is needed so that confidence in the Greek economy is restored. Otherwise, the danger is that later costs will be still higher.’