"The European Union is stonedead". Thats what the former danish primeminister Schlüter said in 1986 as the danes were coerced into voting in favor of the EEC "internal market", thus lying about the political future of the EEC. Since that, the Union has been very alive, and its newest product - The Amsterdam Treaty - is just another milestone on the path toward the development of EU into a european federal republic.
Against this capitalistic european project, VS puts the working class Europe. During spring 98, Denmark will vote on the Amsterdam Treaty. VS will use this period until spring for strengthening cooperation on the european revolutionary left, and by participation in the propaganda on the capitalistic EU project.
When the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1991, the ideas went much further than what was to become the Amsterdam Treaty. They wanted among other things to change the power structure within the council of ministers in order to prepare EU for further extensions. But the member states could not agree on a formula. Nonetheless several important aspects have been included or changed in the new EU treaty. For VS there are 4 major reasons to reject the treaty:
First, the new treaty makes future votes on EU irrelevant. In its section on "flexibility" they say that: "concerns will no more be taken for a country, that denies other member states to advance in an area". This section is also called lex June 2nd in reference to the elections in Denmark on June 2nd 1992, when the Maastricht Treaty was rejected and for a few months made the EU train come to a screetching halt. If this new section had been implemented before 1992, the result of the June 2nd elections would have been irrelevant. With the new treaty, future elections are made irrelevant. The only exception might be a future vote on changes within the ministercouncil power structure.
Secondly the EU constitution is advanced to the same level as member state constitutions. The Maastricht Treaty recognized not only the "national identity" of the member states, but also their "forms of government". This latter aspect has disappeared in the new treaty. As a consequence the EU constitution (its treaties) are advanced to the same level as the national constitutions, and it will be the EU court that will decide on conflicts between the EU constitution and member state constitutions. At the same time EU citizenship is put at the same level as citizenship in individual member states. Also the incorporation of human rights into the new treaty reflects its development into a constitution. The new section is included at the start of the treaty, and is called: "Liberty, peace, and justice", however the liberty isa very watered down version of the UN Human Rights Convention. It has been confirmed by the EU court in this discount version, and has been critisized by a number of human rights organizations. It is also interesting that social rights are completely missing: The right to work, a home, education, and a just life. The incorporation of human rights into the treaty is a severe reduction in relation to rights guaranteed by for instance the danish constitution. Finally concerning security, EU wants to use the Europol policeforce to increase its walls against eastern europe and the 3rd world.
Thirdly, judicial and police cooperation is moved under the EU umbrella, basing itself on the Schengen cooperation, that has so far been external to EU, and into which Denmark and Norway were rapidly included in December 1996, without any public discussion. The Amsterdam treaty makes Europol a reality as an EU institution, and also means the creation of a spy agency completely outside of political control. Finally the posibility of asylum within the EU is removed. This has been a demand from especially Spain, who doesn’t want basque seperatists to be granted asylum within other member states.
Fourthly, the treaty contains no indication of reduction of the unemployment within the union. It is nothing new, that the EU shows some interest on unemployment. Since 1985 it has been a recurrant topic for the Commission and on government conferences. Nonetheless it is a fact, that with 18 million unemployed within the EU, unemployment has never been higher. But then, discussions on unemployment within the EU have never taken in consideration of working class conditions. The motivation has always been, that the high unemployment may cause social upheaval. This however has not prevented employment to be strongly linked to the implementation of the EMU, that has caused drastic policies to be implemented, that has increased unemployment still further in most member states.
At the same time developments in the social and union fields are scaring. A long tradition exists within the EU for incorporating new areas of policy making. First as treaties among individual states (as for instance the Schengen Treaty), and later as a EU treaty development. Initially EU claims, that member states may go further than the treaties, but as EU hegemony develops, this right is replaced by majority rule. This has also been the case with the so called "invironmental guarantee", that after the elections in Denmark in 1986 on the internal market should allow Denmark to go further within the area of invironmental regulation. However all the bourgeois and socialdemocratic governments since then have never dared test this "guarantee", as that would have unmasked the reality: That the guarantee is no more than a procedure for dispensation. At the beginning of September the EU Commission for instance has forced Austria and Luxemburg to abandon rules against import of genetically modified corn. The "guarantee" is no more than an illusion. The history is scaring and the developments with the "Social pact" is oriented towards undermining the collective bargaining system.
Capitalisms project with EU is oriented towards strengthening european capital against competition from especially Japan and the US, at the cost of the working class. The instrument is not only the development of an economically strong european federal state. I includes also frontal attacks on the positions obtained by the working class through 100 years of struggle, and a continously reduction of an already limited bourgeois democracy. I.e. a strengthening of capitalism at the cost of the working class. For VS, the correct response to these developments is a strengthened cooperation within the european working class, and an increased cooperation also with the working class in the other capitalist centres and in the rest of the world, in order once more to increase working class positions. VS wants to contribute to this development by working for a strengthened cooperation on the european revolutionary left and through increased propaganda activities on the EU developments.