International

Last Friday, 29th January, I attended a meeting with the main Dutch trade union federation, the FNV, on the subject of its efforts as regards Brussels. In the past I found it striking that the voice of the trade unions was insufficiently heard within the EU institutions. For every labour movement lobbyist there were ninety-nine from industry. The FNV recognises this and wants, furthermore, to do something about it, but there remains a huge information lag and a lack of means to address the problem.

This was a big week for me, a busy week in the European Parliament with numerous committee meetings. Then, on Saturday there was an inspiring SP national congress, the day before which I was at the FNV meeting on Europe. Taken all together, more than enough topics for the weeklog.

From all of these possible subjects I've selected the FNV meeting, as well as a meeting of the EP Crisis Committee where we had the opportunity to interrogate Professor Monti. These two events had in fact a great deal to do with each other. As European Commissioner for the Internal Market during the 1990s, Monti gave it some shape, and because this year the Commission is looking to give the internal market a fresh start, he has now been asked to prepare a report.

Monti came out with a number of interesting remarks. Amongst other things he said that he was and remains a supporter of the internal market, but that neoliberalism had done a great deal of damage to the project's original aims. When I asked him whether he was for that reason in favour of a strengthening of social rights, which were as things stand invariably subordinated to the sacred principle of unfettered competition, he said that there was indeed a need for a 'safety guarantee' for such rights. He was of the opinion, also, that neoliberalism had for too long laid the emphasis on lower and less progressive taxes. In Monti's view, the time had come when taxes should be raised and the rich no longer spared.

When you hear this sort of stuff from such an unexpected source, you would think that the FNV would be right on top of developments, because here lie opportunities! Yet such developments seem scarcely to have been noticed, even by the FNV's representatives in their Brussels office. In addition, contacts with other trade unions in Europe, or with representatives in the European Works Councils (at firms which have opted for this model and are established in more than one member state) are still not properly developed.

During the conference the idea came up that use should be made of the Citizens' Initiative. If you can assemble a million signatures, you can present the European Commission with a petition requesting that they bring forward a proposal relating to a particular policy area. The FNV is seeking to work on such a petition with the aim of securing social rights in Europe.

In itself this seems to me a good idea. Because in both the EP and the Commission we have a right-wing majority, we shall find it, despite Monti's fine words, difficult to achieve success. Mobilisation, for example in the form of a Citizens' Initiative, could therefore help. I heartily hope that for the time being the FNV will put its energies primarily into the campaign to stop the government raising the pensionable age in the Netherlands from sixty-five to sixty-seven (the '65 stays 65' campaign), but in the longer term action to preserve our social rights at EU level could be extremely useful. In any case, I have agreed with a number of representatives from the trade union movement that we will keep them up to speed with important developments in social policy in the EU. It's high time that their voices were heard more strongly in the corridors of Brussels!