GroenLinks, the Dutch green-left party, will campaign for a ‘yes’ vote in the national referendum on the European Constitution. That decision was taken by the party council on September 18th. With only one vote against, it adopted a resolution which characterizes the Constitution as “a major step forwards for democracy, transparency, rule of law, efficacy and subsidiarity”. The Constitution, far from being ideal, nevertheless offers GroenLinks “more opportunities to realize its goals in the European arena”.
The main advantages of the Constitution, according to the resolution, are:
- the increase in legislative powers of the European Parliament;
- the “alarm-bell” for national parliaments;
- the obligation for the Council of Ministers to discuss and vote laws in public;
- the introduction of a European minister of Foreign Affairs;
- the insertion of binding fundamental rights – both classical and social – and the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights;
- the introduction of a citizens’ initiative;
- the new articles on animal welfare and (renewable) energy;
- the possibility to abolish national vetoes without revising the Constitution;
- the guaranteed participation of European and national parliamentarians in future revisions of the Constitution.
On the other hand, the resolution identifies three “dangers” in the area of defence:
- the lack of clarity surrounding the competences of the defence core-group;
- the risk that this core-group puts pressure on the participating states to raise their defence budgets and to shorten the deadlines for national parliamentary consent to armed missions;
- the strengthening of cooperation in arms procurement without (stricter) rules on arms exports.
To an amendment which denounced both the objective of “free and undistorted competition” and the provisions on liberalisation of public services, the party board objected that free and undistorted competition is preferable to private monopolies and cartels, that the left should not question the internal market as such but impose limits on it and that the provisions of the Constitution make it easier to resist liberalisations than the current treaty articles. The amendment was rejected by the party council.
GroenLinks regrets that the Constitution offers only modest progress towards a social Europe. The adopted resolution therefore demands that the improved provisions on enhanced cooperation be put into effect to create a social and fiscal core-group within the EU.
The referendum on the European Constitution in the Netherlands, which will probably be held in the spring of 2005 and which is the first-ever national referendum, results from a bill introduced by GroenLinks in 2003. That’s why GroenLinks feels a special responsibility to contribute to a well-informed, lively and cross-border public debate in the run-up to the referendum.
Richard Wouters, beleidsmedewerker GroenLinks in de Europese Unie