International

Following the Labour Party's U-turn on the question of a referendum on the new EU treaty, the SP will be putting all of its efforts into generating a head of steam to ensure that public pressure forces a vote to be held. Using an on-line petition, the SP is calling on supporters of both sides, and every political party, to demand that the coalition government of Christian Democrats, Labour and Christian Union hold a referendum. The Socialist Party, which played a leading role in the successful 'No' campaign of 2005, hopes to see opposition political parties of the right – the VVD and PvdV – as well as centre-left Green Left and D66, the PvdD (Animal Rights Party), trade unions and social organisations join the campaign.

SP Member of Parliament and European Affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel is trying to discover whether the government would block a proposal from parliament to hold a referendum on the revised EU treaty. Although the government has decided a referendum on the European Reform Treaty is unnecessary - despite it being almost identical to the Constitutional Treaty overwhelmingly rejected by the Dutch people just over two years ago - this does not close off all of the options. Under the Dutch political system referenda are rare, but parliament as well as the government has the right to call them. Van Bommel wants to know if the present government would reject a democratic decision by parliament to go ahead with such a referendum, and will call tomorrow for an emergency debate with Premier Jan-Peter Balkenende to settle the matter. However, because the prime minister is travelling abroad, a debate could probably not take place before next week.