International

The Dutch national Parliament in The Hague today voted to support a proposal from SP Member Arnold Merkies to the effect that the position of itself and the other parliaments in the EU’s twenty-seven member states should be strengthened when it comes to European Union decision-making. At the European Council in the next few days far-reaching steps towards a European superstate will be discussed. These proposals do contain plans to strengthen the role of national parliaments, but not for what the Dutch Parliament is calling for.

‘What’s striking is that the federalists, the people who actually want to make Europe into a single country, are only concerned with Brussels,’ says Merkies. ‘It is of course good that the European Parliament can exercise better monitoring of the European Commission and the European Council, but that influence must not be at the cost of the influence of national parliaments.’

The Dutch Parliament also supported Merkies’s proposal that they should not agree to accords which could lead to a separate budget for the Eurozone countries. ‘That’s an important message for Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to take to Brussels,’ says Merkies. ‘The proposal for this new budget can therefore be binned. Aid from this budget which will be covered by our taxpayers’ money can only be given to countries on condition that these countries are willing to perform reform programmes laid down by Brussels. That is a far-reaching transfer of powers, which the Dutch Parliament has now voted directly against.'