International

At the beginning of every six-month European Union presidency, the head of the government concerned presents the presidency programme to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Dutch Premier Mark Rutte, head of the government which will occupy the presidency of the Council of Ministers until 30th June, is no exception,. I have few expectations of this, but it will still be interesting to see how the Netherlands views the crisis situation in the EU. Will Rutte at last show some vision and, for instance, put an end to the hunger for power of Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and his ilk. Will he ensure that the EU ceases to be the plaything of the multinationals? And in this way tackle the real causes of the crisis? We’ll know more on Wednesday. Watch this space and I’ll keep you informed.

Foto: Rijksoverheid/Valerie Kuypers

Rutte isn’t one for vision. He even has an aversion to it. That puts him at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to his performance in the European Parliament, where the Members who come to listen to him want to go away inspired. The Europhiles, which is to say the entire establishment of centre-right and centre-left, want to hear that he will not only be solving the European Union’s economic and political crises, but also developing plans for a federal Europe. The extreme right will grill him about the refugee crisis.

As things stand I imagine that Rutte will for the most part repeat things he’s said previously. The economy’s picking up again and that’s the best solution to, for example, unemployment in Europe. The United Kingdom has to stay in the EU and where possible he will help to bring this about, but of course not at any price. The British must be reasonable. And the refugees? Rutte won’t rest until the stream of refugees is stemmed, for example via stepping up cooperation with Turkey. More of the same, then.

Still, I can dream. What if Rutte were to say “I’m not at all surprised by all these crises. For too long we’ve taken the European public for fools, surreptitiously handing ever more powers to the European Commission. I’m now going to put an end to this. And the corporate lobbyists who’ve got Brussels in their pockets. I’ll make short work of them. The EU should be for all of us and listen more to the national parliaments and where necessary the European Parliament instead of all of these multinationals. We’ll be protecting the refugees and I’ll make sure that a reliable system is set up with European asylum centres and a fair and humane division of asylum requests across Europe.”

I’ve still got three nights to dream before Rutte will undoubtedly give me a rude awakening and put an end to these pleasant thoughts. Then I’ll hear again the same uninspired words as always and I’ll know that the Netherlands will be doing nothing to end the causes of all these crises and that Brussels will have to hit still greater storms before we finally start the massive cleanup and get to work on a new Europe.