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.’
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The proposed laws outlawing the SP’s ‘contribution rule’, under which anyone holding a public office in the name of the party pays his or her salary to the SP and receives in return a salary equivalent to that of a Dutch skilled worker, have been withdrawn. SP Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak, welcoming the move, said that it puts an end to the dubious practice under which laws were being used for party political ends. ‘Decision-makers who line their own pockets are not dealt with, while politicians who want to share their own money are made suspect,’ he said.