Wednesday, September 26, 2007

No EU referendum in The Netherlands?

The new treaty which is slated to become the EU constitution in 2009.

The Dutch and the French voted against an EU constitution in referenda in 2005.

In The Netherlands the Left is usually for referenda. The other referendum parties are the Liberal - Democrats (D66) and the hardline socialists (SP).

The Dutch Labour Party yesterday decided that it would oppose organising a new referendum to have the population have a say whether essential governmental powers should be ceded to the EU super state, headquartered in Brussels.

Labour decided to trade the referendum against a law that protects workers from getting fired cheaply. The decision was taken by a meeting of Labour MPs. There was no vote, so MP had to go on the record as opposing the referendum.

Convenient.