International

Last week the European Commission presented its work programme for 2016. The title ‘No time for business as usual’, is in a way accurate and in another way misleading . The Commission’s plans once more reach a bit further into the member states’ social-economic policies than we have been used to, but Brussels’ insatiable appetite is certainly ‘business as usual’, while what has also remained the same as ever is that the transfer of powers is being done surreptitiously, despite the fact that a serious public debate about this, involving the whole of society, is badly needed.

In a past campaign the SP talked about ‘Europe’s claws’, by which we meant that it was no longer our own parliament in The Hague, but the European Commission which would have the last word on the Netherlands’ budget. In the new work programme, the Commission once again broadens its powers still further, including power over the competitiveness of national economies, national investment policy, and social policy. Everyone seems to find this normal and even a fine thing, because the Commission presents it as if they have abandoned their hard-faced budget fetishism. In reality, however, they are simply continuing with their neoliberal policies.

A few examples: under the heading ‘social policy’, the Commission demonstrates that for Brussels this means above all the further extension of ‘flexicurity’. This is the idea they launched years ago of making the labour market more ‘flexible’: people would be assured work, but not necessarily fixed, secure employment. In the end this comes down to the American model: there’s work, but no straightforward, decent jobs. I don’t call that social, but antisocial policy. In addition, the stress on competitiveness promises little of worth: it’s an attack on collective bargaining and collective labour agreements such as our own CAOs, an attack on social security and on pensions, all in the name of lowering costs for employers.

The emphasis that the Commission lays on investments is also, once again, linked to a transfer of powers: the Commission won’t be giving space to the member states to invest for themselves, but wants this to be achieved via Brussels. The Juncker Fund must provide the massive boost and via the European Investment Bank money must be made available for useful investments. Pity that the member states and the national parliaments won’t have the last word on any of this, as it won’t be them, but the Commission which determines which projects will eventually be financed.

I could go on: tax policy, energy policy, even defence policy must all, in whole or in part, become European policies. So don’t be misled by all the talk of how the EU could fall apart as a result of the refugee crisis. While everyone’s occupied with that, the Commission can go quietly on with the task of building its social-economic imperium. To the SP and its members the task is to keep the people of the Netherlands informed about this. In the EP team we’re working on a new paper on the EU for members and supporters in which we will take an extended look at these latest European developments. In this way we can hopefully put an end to the silence surrounding the Commission’s plans and provoke a debate on these topics - matters which in the end affect us all - amongst a broad public.