International

The government headed by Mark Rutte has succeeded in just two years in falling out with just about every member state of the European Union. The Netherlands is starting to become the pariah of Europe. Rutte and his Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager have been doing Angela Merkel’s dirty work for her, thereby alienating the whole of Southern Europe. By putting insufficient distance between itself and the PVV, with its website for ‘reporting Poles’ (who allegedly commit crimes or exhibit antisocial behaviour), Rutte has also made no friends in Eastern Europe. With the SP in the government we will be able to mount a diplomatic offensive in Europe, with clear initiatives by which the Netherlands can once more play a significant role and at the same time ensure that the interests of the Netherlands are served again.

Discussion of a government led by Emile Roemer tends to focus to a great extent on the question of whether it will be possible in the short term for the Netherlands to adopt a flexible approach in relation to the budgetary deficit. For the SP, the 3% norm is not holy writ in all circumstances, and for this reason we are often put down as ‘outsiders’ in Europe. Submission of a well-worked out plan to reduce the budgetary deficit without cutting the economy to death is, however, certainly capable of being defended in Brussels, because the agreements reached at EU level do in fact also offer such a possibility. An exception to the 3% norm is provided for in the case of ‘exceptional economic circumstances, a clause of which many member states will have to take advantage, because most eurozone countries are unable to meet this norm in times of recession.

In order to garner sufficient support for a truly prudent economic approach it will, however, certainly be necessary for the Netherlands to make friends in Europe, and to do that we will have to clear up the mess left by Rutte’s government. We must show solidarity with ordinary people throughout Europe, those who have felt the hardest blows from the economic crisis. You can do this by, amongst other things, making agreements on the introduction of a minimum wage for the whole of Europe, adapted in each country to be proportionate to the national income; by assuring Southern Europe that we will put an end to the short cuts by which major corporations from that region use the Netherlands to evade taxes; and by helping in the development of effective administration. We can also advocate using the European Cohesion Fund to promote innovation in Mediterranean member states. Without denying that the region has seen poor policies pursued in the past, and without being naïve, we can once again become a fully-fledged partner for Southern Europe.

We can make it clear to the Eastern European member states that, unlike the Rutte government, we will not stay silent in the face of discrimination. Together with these countries we will develop an action plan to combat the exploitation of Eastern Europeans by fraudulent employment bureaux. That will be good for Dutch workers too, and for small firms, re-imposing the rule of equal pay for equal work. And it will be good for the Eastern European countries themselves, as their citizens finding illegal workers elsewhere in Europe means that they miss out on tax revenues and contributions to social security systems. They have in this a direct interest in seeing that their citizens are treated decently when they work in other European countries.

In addition to all of this, we can look for new partners. In Finland and Denmark, sister parties of the SP participate in coalition governments. Given the concern in Northern Europe for a sound social welfare system we should be able to form a front against the neoliberal wind still blowing through Brussels.

With the SP in government, Europe will be faced with a charm offensive from the Netherlands. Without losing sight of our own interest, we can repair the damage done in the past.