Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

ediscovering europe in the netherlands
future to accept the legitimacy of new European policies . At least for the
time being, this is also the only way of to establish a basis whereby Dutch
citizens can more readily identify with the eu.
Thus the legitimising role of national politicians and policymakers needs to
be strengthened considerably. This report contains proposals for the development
of parameters to help achieve this. These proposals are firstly
aimed at making the legitimisation of eu policy a regular and integral part
of the activities of the various actors. Secondly, the proposals are intended
to go beyond the black-and-white oppositions which tend to dominate the
public debate (‘more’ versus ‘less’ Europe; ‘Dutch’ interests versus ‘European’
interests), as the legitimisation of eu policy often demands political
choices of a different kind.
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The first requirement to this end within the domain of politics and administration
is that government involvement at the European level be much
less driven by the internal ‘logic’ of policy domains and trails in the wake
of European developments to a lesser extent than at present. The key is to
strongly prioritise European themes and at the same time create a more
robust and more anticipatory political control system. The government
must be able to identify the European issues that are crucial for the Dutch
political arena at an early stage, to then weigh those issues and finally,
adopt a position on them. This requires a clear allocation of political
responsibilities. The influence of the Prime Minister is an important
element in this process. The legitimising role that political parties and the
Dutch Parliament play should also be strengthened. Political prioritisation
is also important for these actors, as well. In order to strengthen the role of
Parliament, the wrr recommends that parliamentary activities relating to
high priority eu policy proposals be linked to parliamentary scrutiny akin
to the British model.
In addition, new types of safeguards could make a valuable contribution to
the legitimisation of eu policy. In this connection, the wrr recommends
the inclusion of two safeguards in the Dutch Constitution: a clear but
general formulation of the values and key objectives which the Netherlands
seeks to achieve through its eu membership, and an explicit formulation
of the key elements of national identity that the Netherlands will seek to
promote and protect within the eu. Incorporating such safeguards in the
Constitution first requires a fundamental political debate about the desired
nature and direction of the eu and the Netherlands’ role within the eu.
As a corollary to this, the wrr also recommends that these safeguards be
subjected to constitutional review in order to offer an additional safeguard
to citizens. This also offers a supplementary accountability mechanism.