Jobs and growth for all or more of the same? David Cameron’s approach favours the latter.
As a newcomer to the European parliament it can seem extremely daunting when you try and get your head around the place. Not only is the series of parliament buildings in Brussels physically complicated (not to mention Strasbourg, which I am reliably informed is even trickier to navigate) but equally complex is the nature of the relationship between members of the European parliament and the commission. The political priorities of both have the potential to end up facing in completely different directions. Managing that will be key.
The European parliamentary Labour party enters parliament as a much bigger group of 20 Labour MEPs at a time when, perhaps uniquely, there is an ongoing interest in the United Kingdom media and in the electorate at large about the future of the European Union, the composition of the commission and what the new parliament will end up focussing on. This means that getting up to speed with the layout and code of the place will be of critical importance for new MEPs. As a group we may already be streets ahead of the Conservatives on this regard. Let me try to explain why.
The election results across Europe were of course a mixed bag, depending on which member state you choose to focus on and depending on your starting point – left or right – for conducting your analysis. One thing that ought to be apparent to all is that the message from voters was far from an endorsement of the status quo. This would be equally true for the result in parts of the UK, where the Coalition got a bloody nose, as it is for France, with huge gains for the far-right and Italy, with huge gains for the centre-left. Different reactions were produced in each country, but by a similar cause: a desire for real change.
The new commission that is proposed will be put before the parliament and voted on by all its members when we sit properly for the first time in July. Labour is committed to ensuring that as members of the group of Socialists and Democrats we put real emphasis on delivering programmes for job creation, tackling youth unemployment as well as cracking down on tax avoidance and exploitation of people at work. If the new commission ends up replicating the disconnect and disillusion that so many people feel about the way in which the response to the global economic crisis has been handled and fails to address these issues then, quite simply, it will fail.
Which brings me back to the Conservatives. Cameron’s oft-deployed strategy of firing all his guns at the start of his negotiations with other leaders has produced the oft-repeated result: isolation. It would be ironic if, following the clear mandate for change, Cameron’s inability to build allies and win influence pushes the centre-left and centre-right closer together simply as a reaction to his stance. Such a move would make reform proposals from all sides much harder. The prime minister’s adherence to his Eurosceptic backbenchers first and foremost is his core weakness in Europe. Unfortunately it is a weakness that translates into a far bigger problem for the UK as a whole.
———————————
Seb Dance is a member of the European parliament
———————————
Photo: European parliament