International

Investigation and prosecution are the job of the Dutch national authorities, not the EU. On Thursday the Dutch National Parliament debated the proposed broadening of the tasks of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (PPO). In the SP's view, however, the PPO is like the caterpillar in the children's story that could never eat enough. Even before the PPO is properly established there's already a proposal that its mandate be extended to include combating terrorism. Parliament agreed with the SP that this was a bad idea.

As SP Member of Parliament Renske Leijten said: “As if combating terrorism would immediately improve if you remove the responsibility from the member states and hand it to a mega-institution that hasn't even been set up. The opposite would happen, I'd say.”

The SP has always opposed the establishment of the European Public Prosecutors' Office as unnecessary and undesirable. The resolution adopted by Parliament gives Prime Minister Mark Rutte the clear duty in meetings with his colleagues from other EU member states to resist any extension of the PPO. “If the intelligence services investigate citizens the issue is sensitive,” said Leijten. “Everyone must be able to trust that it will be handled with great care. That's why you need properly democratic guarantees. These don't exist at the European level.”