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

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introduction 1 introduction 1.1 background and reason for the report On 1 June 2005, the Dutch electorate, with a resounding majority of almost 62 percent, voted against ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty. This result followed the earlier rejection of the Treaty by the French electorate. This was striking enough in itself, but the discrepancy between the opinions of the Dutch voters, on the one hand, and the government and the vast majority of mps, on the other, was even more surprising. Whereas 85 percent of the members of the house of representatives of the Dutch Parliament had expressed support for the Treaty, only 38.5 percent of the electors who voted did so (Voerman 2005: 44). How could this have happened? Almost 18 months later, on 22 November 2006, parliamentary elections were held in the Netherlands. The political parties played a remarkable role in the run-up to the elections. Shortly after the hectic and unstructured referendum campaign, the established parties in particular did everything within their power to explain to their supporters that they indeed had a clear vision of ‘Europe’. A majority of the political parties even published a ‘Europe manifesto’. It was as if the debate on Europe had finally, albeit rather late, reached the centre of the Dutch political arena. In reality, however, nothing could have been further from the truth. The ‘Broad Public Debate’ (Brede Maatschappelijke Discussie), later renamed the National Europe Debate (Nationaal Europa Debat), was suspended when Parliament (which had earlier forced a referendum on the Treaty) withdrew its support. During the election campaign, most politicians decided to painstakingly avoid the subject of Europe altogether (Van Grinsven, Van Keulen and Rood 2006). Once again, the larger political parties appeared to have been embarrassed and showed visible signs of discomfort. 31 Initially, political commentators interpreted the rejection of the proposed Constitutional Treaty as an expression of a more general level of discontent with the ‘self-complacent’ political elites which had dominated the Dutch electorate since the ‘Fortuyn revolt’ in 2002 (Van Renselaar 2007). There are indeed sufficient indicators that support the political discontentment in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, political research has demonstrated that this discontent has not been restricted to the Netherlands (and France), but has also manifested itself in other established European democracies. Other countries share a similar distrust of politicians, political parties and political elites (Mair 2006: 6; Bovens 2006b; see also European Values Studies: Atlas of European Values 2005). Moreover, recent research has shown that
ediscovering europe in the netherlands the Dutch electorate definitely used the referendum as a means of expressing their opinion on the eu itself and on the principles of eu policy in the Netherlands (Aarts and Van der Kolk 2005). 1.2 the government request for recommendations and the perspective of the wrr 1.2.1 the government request for recommendations 32 In light of the referendum outcome, the Dutch government asked the wrr to compile an advisory report on the issue of how the democratic mandate for and the social embedding of Dutch eu policy can be strengthened. 1 Several national advisory bodies have published their reflections on the role of the eu in the national administration, politics and society. 2 These bodies focussed mainly on the relevant institutional aspects. For example, the National Convention recently presented suggestions to streamline co-operation between the government and Parliament on European issues (Nationale Conventie 2006). Other bodies have pointed out that such measures alone, are probably not enough to engage the people. In its report, the Council of State focused on the citizens’ position (Raad van State 2005). The government has also asked to take this element into account in its request for recommendations to the wrr. The government presented the wrr with two specific questions: 1. ‘… whether and how – through a better embedding of European decision-making in the Dutch political process – making European issues more political can contribute to bridging the gap that has emerged between citizens and Europe? 2. How can the social embedding of Europe in the Netherlands be fostered?’ (Prime Minister 2006). With its first question, the government is requesting more insight into the process of politicisation from several perspectives, such as the relation between politicisation and engaging greater public support and the mutual relations between government, Parliament and the Dutch electorate. Insights from and experiences in other eu member states can also be incorporated. The government’s second question demands more insight into ‘the structural and cultural variables (and constants) which are relevant for embedding and the degree to which those variables can be influenced. The government wishes to gain insight in[to] the extent and ways in which various actors in the Netherlands can strengthen their ‘European role’ and
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Following the negative 2005 referen
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