Rutte shows Clegg how its done on EU reform

It's good to hear a Dutch speaking liberal party leader forcefully expressing the case for EU reform. Sadly, as we noted earlier, it certainly wasn't Nick Clegg.  

In fact it was the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who once again today reaffirmed his credentials as a key proponent of EU reform with a speech to the FDP in Berlin.

As we have also noted before, the Netherlands (both the country and its government) is becoming a bit of a breeding and testing ground for ideas on EU reform. In his speech Rutte said:

"A lot of people in Europe are angry at the EU. Angry at those who sat at the controls in Brussels during recent years. Our common project of peace becomes, if we don't recognise this on time, a project of discontent."

"We won't restore the future and the belief in a functioning Europe with European elections or with European ‘spitzenkandidaten’. The ball is now in the court of national parliaments. Their legitimacy is greater than that of the European Parliament. So they should deal at an earlier stage and also more intensely with decision making in and from Brussels"

"European where necessary, national where possible. Tasks such as healthcare, education and taxation really are things which are for the Netherlands to decide, I think."

"That's why the European Commission should be given four core tasks: to strengthen the single market, to stimulate international trade, to more strictly apply agreements made and to only regulate in Brussels what really must be dealt with at the European level."

"All too often agreements regarding the budget or the democratic rule of law haven't been respected...Europe is more and more being associated with an anonymous, formal and impersonal layer of government where national sovereignty is being replaced by normative rules ‘from Brussels’".

Lots of overlap (at least in tone) with what Chancellor George Osborne and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble laid out in the FT last week.

There was however one of Rutte's comments lacked credibility:

"Unemployment is the biggest problem of our time. I see it in my circle of friends.  You probably do too..."

Admittedly we’re not familiar with the Dutch Prime Minister's circle of friends but we find it hard to believe many of them are struggling for work...Nevertheless, Clegg could learn a thing or two.

Is an EU referendum back on the Dutch agenda?

Thierry Baudet

This week, the Dutch Parliament held a debate on whether it is necessary to hold a referendum on transferring new powers to the European Union. The debate was triggered by a campaign, called "Citizen's forum - EU" which managed to gather over 63,000 signatures, above the threshold needed (40,000 signatures necessary) to force it on to the agenda of the Lower House.

The campaign demands:

1. An end to the creeping transfer of powers to the EU.

2.  If powers are transferred to the EU, a referendum must be held so the Dutch population can have a say on this transfer of powers.

Two of the campaigners, Dutch academic Thierry Baudet (photo), and economist Ewald Engelen said in a speech to MPs: 

"The Lower House is about to lose its core competences...You won’t be able to decide policy any more. You abolish yourself. But you don’t have the right at all to do this. Because the sovereignty is with us, the people. You are merely the representatives of the Dutch people."

As De Volkskrant reported, the reception was more positive than expected. It was not only the "usual suspects", like Geert Wilders' PVV, the Socialist Party and the Party for the Animals that welcomed the idea. These parties have expressed support for a Dutch-style "referendum lock" in the past,

More interestingly, the social-democrat PvdAalso  came out in support, with its EU-spokeswoman Marit Maij MP, saying: "the PvdA wants to proceed quickly with a possible referendum" - albeit with a lot of qualifications,The party is only in favour of a non-binding referendum, and wants it to be held according to new rules currently being negotiated in the Dutch Senate, which would make it necessary to first obtain 300,000 signatures, a high threshold in the Netherlands (but something which the EU referendum campaigners are considering).

The Christian Union, which sits with the Tories in the ECR Group in Brussels, support the idea, with its spokesman, Gert-Jan Segers MP, saying that "by means of exception we accept an advisory referendum".

Dutch PM Mark Rutte's governing VVD reiterated its support for strengthening national parliaments (something which the PvdA also wants), but is against referendums as a tool of policy.

Meanwhile, a new poll, by prominent pollster Maurice de Hond, reveals that 67% of Dutch citizens want a referendum in the event of new powers be transferred from the Netherlands to the EU:

Ja = Yes, Nee = No

This is against a tricky backdrop: current opinion polls show that Geert Wilders' PVV would have almost as many seats the governing VVD and PvdA combined, if an election was held today (though that goes far beyond Europe as an issue). With the Dutch government's campaign to set limits on the powers of the next European Commission shows, the European election campaign could prove interesting in the Netherlands.

Rutte: Don't blame voters for anti-EU sentiments - blame politicians

Dutch PM Mark Rutte is often seen as a key UK ally who is able to maintain warm relations with both the Liberal and Conservative sides of the coalition. In London today to deliver the Isaiah Berlin lecture he talked about the big challenges facing Europe, making the following key points:

• The EU is greater than the sum of its parts but it is a means to an end - prosperity, security etc - rather than an end in itself.
• As a liberal, he said that he believes that decisions should be made as close as possible to those whom they affect - and therefore the EU should not be involved in areas that can be better handled at the national level such as the minimum wage, pensions, social security and taxation.
• However, where the EU could add more value is in expanding the single market, particularly in services (it was Rutte who first made the suggestion that this could take place under enhanced co-operation, an option we explored in our recent report).
• Commenting on the NSA spying scandal, he said the Dutch government would support the Franco-German initiative to clear up the issue with the Americans to prevent a repeat but added that he opposed any new competences for the EU in this area. He also said that it would be "totally counter-productive" to suspend the US-EU free trade negotiations over this issue, and that he strongly opposed this (Business Secretary Vince Cable who was in the audience appreciated that one).
• He said that he backed David Cameron's 'business task force' report which aims to cut red tape and promote competitiveness and innovation which Europe needs in order to maintain the high standard of living many of its citizens have become accustomed to, and that he supported efforts to demarcate EU competences from national ones, but that he opposed unilateral opt-outs which could damage the single market.
• On the political side, he said that there was widespread disillusionment with the European project among much of the public, but that rather than blaming the voters for opting for fringe parties on the left and right, established parties have to shoulder the blame for creating the political space for them to operate in.
• Finally, he stressed that although he was not opposed to referenda per se, his strong preference would be for any eurozone related changes (banking union, competitiveness contracts) to take place under the existing legal framework as opposed to re-opening the EU treaties which would trigger votes in several countries which would inevitably become in/out votes.

All in all then a mixed bag for David Cameron - strong support for his vision of a leaner, business friendly, trade-orientated and more accountable EU, but scepticism towards opening up the EU Treaties which could offer possibilities for more fundamental changes.

Has the Dutch VVD moved further than the Tories on EU reform and return of EU powers?

In the Dutch Parliament earlier, the VVD (the party of the Dutch PM) EU spokesman Mark Verheijen said he thought EU treaty change was “inevitable” and what is more

"when we want less Brussels in several domains, return whole policy areas, then we should not shy away from the option of treaty change."

This is interesting for three reasons:

First, though stressing the need for the EU to do less, until now, the VVD hasn't really been calling for the return of 'EU powers' - this statement is a challenge to the current division of labour between member states and Brussels.

Secondly,  Dutch politicians - including those from the VVD - have been keen to point out they're not seeking EU treaty change, but want to roll back Brussels' interference within the existing structure.

Finally, together with the recent Dutch "subsidiarity review" - that called time on 'ever closer union' in all policy areas -  the VVD Party has moved into areas that David Cameron has so far not dared not go - explicitly looking forward to and advocating treaty change and outlining concrete areas where the EU shouldn't be involved.

Intriguingly, however, later in the same debate Prime Minister Mark Rutte stepped in to cool it all down a bit. Well, he explained, the Dutch government is not actually proactively in favour of EU treaty change "unless it has already become inevitable". In this scenario he would forward his own ideas but he would not take the initiative.

It's almost as if Europe is waiting for someone to take the initiative...

Is the Netherlands heading for a referendum on Europe?

In 2005, Dutch voters rejected the European Constitution

A Dutch citizens' campaign to make it mandatory to hold a referendum on any new transfer of powers to the EU - reminiscent of the UK's referendum lock - has mustered 40,000 signatures, the threshold needed to force Dutch MP's to debate the issue and decide whether they agree with the proposal or not.

A "Parliamentary Commission" still needs to decide whether the initiative meets the conditions for triggering a parliamentary debate. Even if it does, only the Socialist Party, Geert Wilders' populist Party for Freedom and a few smaller parties support the idea - so there's no majority for it in the Dutch parliament. Last week, the centre-right VVD - which governs alongside the Labour Party -  labelled the initiative "unhelpful".

Is this the end of it then? Not quite. The next threshold is 300,000 signatures - which could trigger a non-binding referendum, subject to a new law which still needs to be adopted by the Dutch Senate. The campaigners are already looking ahead to that. There are lots of hurdles to actually get to the stage where a non-binding referendum on whether to adopt a "referendum lock" can be held - let alone adopted - but there's definitely something stirring underneath the surface.

Diederik Samsom, the leader of the Labour Party, said last weekend that changes to EU treaties should indeed require referenda (which is why the Dutch government wants to avoid such changes for now). According to a new poll, 64% of Dutch voters want a referendum on any new transfers of power to the EU (not surprising). However, more surprisingly, 65% of voters actually oppose such transfers of power altogether. With this in mind, gaining 300,000 signatures in a country with almost 17 million citizens does not seem impossible.

As the Dutch government argued in its "State of the EU" report, "The EU's democratic deficit is [the Union's] Achilles heel." The concerns brewing under the surface in the Netherlands show that this shortcoming will need to be addressed sooner rather than later.