International

The chair of the Liberal group in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, issues persistent pleas for political leadership. What he means by this is that leaders of governments ‘must have the courage to opt for a United States of Europe’, even if the vast majority of the population don’t want any such thing: it must be, in order to calm the financial markets. This is prettily put, but ugly all the same. It isn’t the European public who caused the crisis, but the speculators, so I don’t think it offers much evidence of leadership if you saddle the people with a neoliberal European economic governance that looks primarily to austerity and to cuts in public provision. In my view political leadership would involve chasing the speculators back down into the pit where they belong. That’s why we have this week brought forward a number of proposals for a European action plan against speculators. I am curious to know whether Verhofstadt has the courage to show leadership in this matter, but I fear the worst. His pals from the financial lobby wouldn’t like that one little bit.

This week I took part in a debate at the Filmhuis in The Hague, organised by the Montesquieu institute, a research body specialising in parliaments and democratic systems. It was a pleasant evening, kicking off with a showing of the film Inside Job, which shows how the financial crisis was engendered by casino capitalists who, at the expense of ordinary people, made extraordinary profits, and who at the onset of the crisis simply hung on to their bonuses. In fact, more is being paid out now than was the case before the crisis, while many of these people are currently in the American government, or acting as advisors to President Obama. The film calls Europe a shining example – here the speculators would certainly be tackled.

I was unfortunately obliged to disappoint the public. In Europe too, the speculators run the show. Government leaders tremble if they so much as squeak. A recent documentary on German television showed how the banks’ leading lobbyist even helps to write the European Council’s conclusions. During the Council’s 21st July summit his limousine arrived just after Merkel’s. Neither are the European Union financial supervisors indifferent to the financial lobby. A number of NGOs have presented a complaint to the European Ombudsman, because the financial lobby holds two-thirds of the places in the supervisory bodies’ feedback groups. Not exactly a guarantee that speculators will have to bend before the general interest.

People are longing for political leadership, but not so that our welfare state can be killed off, or the Netherlands become a province of a United States of Europe. Rather, in order that those who caused the crisis can be brought to book. Hence the proposals for a European action plan against speculators, which we will be bringing forward in both the Dutch national legislature and the European Parliament. Then we’ll see just how much political leadership the other parties can show.