Dutch review attacks 'creeping' EU powers - Main contents

BRUSSELS - The Netherlands, one of the EU's six founding countries, has attacked "creeping" EU interference in people's day-to-day life.

Its coalition government said in a memo published on Friday (21 June) that: "The Netherlands is convinced that the time of an 'ever closer union' in every possible policy area is behind us."

It said the Union's new slogan should be: "European where necessary, national where possible."

It underlined that it does not want to change the EU treaties.

It also said there is a "strong need" for joint EU action on big-ticket items, such as economic governance, climate change, migration, tax fraud and defence.

But it noted that a recent review of EU powers by its foreign minister, Frans Timmermans i, shows the need for "creating a European Union that is more modest, more sober."

The review paper - a 22-page document sent to Dutch MPs - was also on Friday leaked by the London-based think tank, Open Europe.

In what it dubs "creeping competences," it says the European Commission should stop publishing non-binding "communications or recommendations" in areas where it has no legal mandate.

It says EU countries should have more say on "implementing acts" - EU officials' tweaks to existing law, also known as "comitology" in EU jargon.

It also says that if a verdict by the EU court in Luxembourg "interprets EU legislation in a way that EU legislators did not foresee" then the original law should be changed.

Timmermans' paper - drafted after talks with dozens of Dutch firms, trade associations and trade unions - also contains 54 "points of action" on EU policies ranging from tax to olive oil jugs.

It says the new Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), to be put in place by 11 EU states, should not cover Dutch funds which trade in FTT countries.

It says Brussels should bin its bill on a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base - a law designed to stop tax avoidance by firms such as Google or Starbucks - because corporate tax is "a national prerogative."

It says EU officials' salaries should be calculated in a new way that lets member states cut them more easily in times of crisis.

It rejects the idea of new EU budget line for economic aid to eurozone countries.

It voices opposition to the EU's €500 million a year Globalisation Adjustment Fund and its €2.5 billion Fund for Aid to the Most Deprived because "member states should determine their own poverty policies."

It says there is "no reason for EU-level legislation" on quotas for women on corporate boards.

It rejects EU interference in countries' consular services abroad and on "family reunification" for migrants.

It aims to roll back EU projects on construction material norms, forestry management, anti-flood measures and milk and fruit programmes for schoolchildren.

It also notes that the recent fiasco on olive oil jugs is a "a good example" of how EU law creates undue "administrative burdens."

The commission in May retracted a ban on refillable olive oil bottles or dipping bowls in restaurants on hygiene grounds after a wave of ridicule in European media.

Timmermans said the 2014 EU elections and the 2016 Dutch EU presidency are an "opportunity" to put the ideas into play.

The Dutch initiative comes after British leader David Cameron i in a speech in January also criticised the idea of "ever closer union," a phrase in the Lisbon Treaty.

British foreign minister William Hague in July also promised to do a Timmermans-type review of "meddlesome" EU activity.

He said his paper will be ready in 2014.

The British study is expected to go further than the Dutch paper, with a focus on EU criminal legislation and social policies.

It will underpin the UK's plan to negotiate new opt-outs from EU law and to hold referendum on whether to stay in the Union in 2017.