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YOU MAY NOT have heard much about it, but there’s an EU referendum happening today.
No, it’s not the Brexit vote – the UK doesn’t go to the polls until 23 June.
Today Dutch voters will be making their voices heard on a key European cooperation deal with Ukraine, in a vote organised by eurosceptic groups and seen as a proxy poll on EU ties.
However, after a low-key campaign many of the country’s 12.5 million eligible voters still say they are puzzled by what exactly they are voting for in the poll, only the second since 2005 on European Union issues.
In an added twist, observers say the referendum’s non-binding outcome is more important to Ukraine, where a pro-EU revolution ousted Kiev’s Russian-backed leadership in 2014 and has made active moves to strengthen links with the West.
Dutch organisers last week admitted the vote on the so-called EU Association Agreement – which mainly bolsters trade with Kiev – is essentially not about Ukraine, but a handy platform to push a broader anti-EU agenda and “give citizens more say in Brussels”.
“We want a referendum because we feel somebody has to ring the alarm bells for our democracy,” said Bart Nijman of the GeenPeil (No Poll) lobby group.
GeenPeil is one of three movements that helped trigger the popular vote on the back of a new Dutch law that allows citizens to retroactively voice opinions on legislative decisions.
The Netherlands is now the only country in the 28-nation EU bloc still to ratify the accord and the deal has been given the thumbs up by both the upper and lower houses of the Dutch parliament.
“The EU wants too much, too fast and thereby Brussels seems to have lost the people’s mandate,” Nijman, a key organiser of the No campaign told AFP.
Dutch dilemma
His group holds up the EU-Ukraine accord as a typical example of an over-reaching bureaucratic Brussels that doesn’t consult its citizens before making decisions.
With campaigning stepping up pace this weekend, aided by some top Ukrainian officials on special visits seeking to push a Yes vote, many remain baffled.
“I know there’s a referendum about an accord, but I don’t know more than that,” said Ans, 49, a Dutch voter when asked by AFP.
The referendum however is only advisory, and the Dutch government has repeatedly said it will await the outcome before deciding what steps to take.
But if Wednesday’s turnout reaches the 30% threshold needed for the poll to be valid – and if a No vote against the Kiev deal wins – Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the Netherlands, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will be left facing a major embarrassment, analysts say.
While the government has abstained from actively campaigning, Dutch cabinet ministers including the Liberal Rutte and his junior partner, Labour Party’s Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher have urged citizens to vote in favour of the deal.
“I’m whole-heartedly voting Yes… because I fully believe it’s good for both the Netherlands and Ukraine,” Asscher told reporters last week.
He lashed out at those “abusing” the referendum as an anti-EU platform.
“Let me be very clear. This is about Ukraine, even if you have criticism of the EU,” Asscher said, adding “there are other ways to make anti-EU feelings known”.
‘Nexit?’
Tony van der Togt, senior researcher at The Hague’s respected Clingendael think-tank, told AFP the EU-Ukraine referendum has been hijacked by eurosceptics in the Netherlands pushing a broader agenda.
It was “more to make an anti-EU statement… more about tackling the EU and they would even consider pushing a ‘Nexit’ in the future,” he said, alluding to Britain’s move.
Van der Togt also warned the Dutch referendum could set a dangerous precedent for other European countries.
“There is a risk that all kinds of other referenda in other European countries are going to be organised. If you allow this to happen everywhere within the EU you can’t take any decisions any more,” he said.
But Henk Loos, 59, said he’ll cast a No vote against the accord next week.
“It’s good to have a referendum. It’s good because the people are going to make their voices heard,” Loos said.
© – AFP 2015 edited by Daragh Brophy.
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Work hard and pay more tax? The top ten% pay 60% of the income tax but get very few benefits.
I like living in a country with a social conscience but I don’t want to live In a country that seeks to destroy the motivation of people to work hard for a better standard of living.
@joe traynor…”the top 10% pay 60%…”. Please elaborate on that quote Joe, not sure you have that right.
With 2 tax bands 20% & 41% it stands a bit unfair that someone on 1 million a year can pay the same as someone on 50k a year. There is a real case for having at least 3 tax bands. Also the richer can better afford tax consultants who are able to find creative ways of moving money around to find loopholes and avoiding heavy tax bills. Some of us just don’t have the money left over at the end of the month to do this.
And when you say the top 10 get very few benefits. What do you mean by that. I’m sure they are entitled to the same tax breaks and credits as anyone else. The only area I can see they would be hit harder is in the USC.
Even 3 isn’t enough in my opinion. In Germany e.g. there’s a new tax band for every 1,000 to 2,000 Euros you move up the income scale. Starts at about 14% and goes up to 45%.
If this government had any balls they would have brought in a 3rd tax band at the start of their term. It would have been their one and only saving redeemer. It could have been a good starting point. They could have eased off on the 41% a little to help drive spending in the economy by the middle class, and put a higher band in to offset the losses. a great stimulus package. I’ve heard people on here saying the government have only 2 choices, cutting the amount of public spending and and raising tax’s. But no one has really looked at increasing the tax income vai stimulus. I have money save but fcuked if I’m spending it.
The high income earners already pay a huge share of the tax take. Take a look at the graph on page3 of the government report below. It shows the percentage of your income you pay in tax (effective tax rate) and how it varies depending on your income.
What he means is while the lower 90% of earners pay x amount in income tax, the upper 10% earn so much more that the tax they alone pay amounts to 60% of the total taken in by the government. I’m only out of college, and I’m working in the UK, not for a lack of jobs in engineering in Ireland, but it was a great job! I’m still in the lower earners band too comfortably for my own liking but think people are naive to say hike the tax on high earners. Just because they can take it doesn’t mean they deserve it. Its punishment for success, not a great motivator when the economy needs growth.
joe you mean like seanie and fingers and the rest of the banksters and crooked politicians who are lying through their teeth and mugging the people and calling it democracy and destroying our childrens future and nobody held accountable ,a judicial system smashed with corruption beyond repair ,solicitors still allowed to police them selves ,no person in kennys department asked what happened the night of the bank guarantee which effectively pushed a half a million of our finest out of the country and landed massive debts on to the backs of children not even born ,they have created an image of fear that is frightening investors from this country,and the worst is to come they are looking at peoples savings to pay for this mess that has been created by white collar crime plus the media is totally in the regimes pocket
Yes but why would they do something that would affect themselves. Remember politicians are greedy and wont hit themselves
Bill, I’m pretty sure he isn’t talking about those people. He’s talking about the doctors, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs etc. Etc. who have worked hard to get where they are. Support jobs in the economy and pay large amounts of tax.
Also for a place where people are so afraid to invest there seems to be a lot of businesses and companies investing in Ireland .
Very few benefits – what are you talking about – elaborate – they get the same benefits as an ordinary average earner
well if you like living in a country with a social conscience – surely in the time of austerity ( mainly caused by these “hard ” workers who earn an awful lot and have the best advice in order to avoid paying tax on all their income wouldnt mind paying a little more
Did money motivate bankers, developers etc to work hard…..
someone paying huge amounts of tax is earning huge amounts of money. The rich don’t pay any higher than someone on 41% tax band, except when it comes to USC
Trying to make the case that the top earners do not pay more taxes than the less well off, is counter productive. USC, PRSI and the 41% rate mean that people over 50k pay more than 50% on their earnings above a threshold. Then you have to add property tax, waste collection charges, DIRT on any savings, very high health costs and 23% vat. Accepting that they pay enough is a more rational approach. A 1c levy on text messages should be considered. Taxing a portion of the children’s allowance is another option, what about a higher tax rate on cars with engines above 2 litres?
Simon, are you completely ignoring my comments. I have shown you the richer you are, the more you pay
every citizen supports jobs in the economy and every citizen pays tax relative to their income, except for those business people, self employed who routinely don’t declare their income as can be seen by the cases revenue take,
Plus the rich have financial advice from accountants in order to avoid paying tax, something the rest of us don’t have access to
But isn’t that the point Philip the richer you are the MORE tax you pay relative to your income. It is already a fair system in that regard. You can see that in the link I put above.
By support jobs I meant create. For example a GP might hire a Secretary, a scientist can create a new drug or product that needs to be made, an engineer could design a product to be built our tested. All of these activities create additional jobs in the economy.
You wont pay more tax as a % of your income compared to an ordinary paye taxpayer because you will have access to accountants etc who will “avoid” you having to pay tax through measures introduced by the government from rich representatives
People only create jobs due to demand for product or service, so without us plebs there would be no demand for the service, so its a bottom up creation not a top down
Maybe the self employed people but there is plenty of PAYE workers on 100k+. They can’t do that. If there are issues with tax avoidance that it’s a separate issue that needs to be tackled
Guess they old ”you reap what you sow” commonplace is true anywhere but here.
“I know! We’ll take more money from those people that earned lots of it! Sure they probably just found it in the street anyway.”
Millionaires are fair game. But the people who’ve been earning between 100-200k for a few years now 1) earned it 2) already pay a stupid amount in tax and 3) were probably enjoying a lifestyle similar akin to their income but are now in negative equity and debt.
This is just another way of taking money out of the economy and stifling job creation.
Okay, it might not be “fair”, but as the money has to come from somewhere, is it not legitimate to expect that those who have most give most? Would it be fairer to take even more from the low and middle income groups? The Irish taxation system with its two tax bands is not progressive enough anyway.
I think you’re describing living in a society there Franzi. The rich will still expect their cars to be fixed. food to be cooked and served at restaurants, shop assistants to till up their clothes. They want the services provided by a society, but that comes at a cost.
Fight Club comes to mind
Franzi, the Irish system is ranked as one of the midst progressive. There are two tax bands but your forgetting about the tax credits people are given. This ensures that the more you earn the bigger proportion of your salary you pay.
The link below shows how you pay a higher percentage based on how much you earn (page 3)
We need a 15% flat tax rate on all income. We will never grow the economy with the “progressive” system we have. A very simple example is a guy on 40k turning down overtime because he ends up paying 52% tax and possibly loses benefits like FIS or college grants for kids. If all he lost was 15% he’d do the OT, spend the money, benefiting the economy in general.
Funded by the trade unions, I’m sure that was a fair and unbiased piece of research.
Every bit as unbiased as the ERSI tbh.
Either are about a useful as a degree from a Christian College
Not gonna start a debate where religion can be dragged into it.
I will leave you with this”he who pays the piper calls the tune”
ERSI funded by government.
Nevin Insitute funded by unions.
Neither will bite the hand that feeds them.
True
Like they’re going to slap the hand that feeds them…
That’s nice but they need to keep rich people rich because they like being rich!
Lots of jobs on offer, may not be the dream job – but plenty of work for those who want it
Irish people need to cop on a little.
Too easy to point the finger. Getting a little stale. Get off mammy’s laptop and get the bus in to town and you will find a job if you look hard enough.
So there is over 350, 000 jobs available.Wow pick up the phone tell Enda the country is saved, no need then for government to try and create jobs they can concentrate their efforts elsewhere.
some times just not that cut and dry, distance to jobs. do you drive. have you kids, shift work, and the old “some people are actually better off on the dole”
Plenty of jobs Norm – as I said, may not be the dream one, but plenty of work to be had.
So 350, 000 yeah?
wow theres 400,000 jobs out there someone stop the presses the country is saved yipeeeee……I do love people who have this notion that if the so called flotaing jobs out there were filled we would all be saved
cb I’ll make it easy tell me where 50 of all those jobs are, I know 20 plus people constantly applying for jobs.You’ll help me save them time, their not fussy just want work.So when your ready.
This has long since been a proposal by Sinn Féin. Maybe now when a so called professional group suggests the same Our defunct Government can implement this & claim it was in their manifesto all along.
Sure follow the Lib Dems across the pond and raise the rate of tax on those earning over a whopping €60, 250 (£50k)! That’ll bring growth and stability and prosperity to all! And it will solve transport snarls, education shortages, pollution issues and living cost overruns as nobody will get out of bed ’til 12.30′ish each day if at all!
What about tackling the welfare payments the 70,000 odd who have never contributed anything to this economy but continually drain the system…guarantee you would save more than €400m….would SF support that Richie?
Do you have a source for that 70,000? I’d like to take a look if so. Thanks.
A fair and equitable solution, socially just. Which is why its not going to happn during the lifetime of this government. Lest we forget in the last budget Labour wanted to increase the USC on high earners, and fine gael threatened to cut welfare rates in return i.e. once again holding a gun to the heads of the most vulnerable.
Fair and equitable….. Yep that makes sense, once someone else pays for it, right?
It’s fair and equitable because someone else will pay for it, that makes sense!
No tax increases!!!!! Cut the wasteful spending and benefit program’s destroying America and Ireland. Oppose funding the lazy and punishing the successful.
Be under no illusions, this country is poxed for another 10 years.
Worst Fáilte Ireland slogan ever.
Middle working class will get hit the most as per usual.
And the dole scammers who have all the time in the world for joe duffy will get off scott free and continue to be a drain on society, thats a 21 billion a year budget cut that could easily be made
Anyone remember good old Bertie claiming a huge pension (s) while claiming tax breaks as an “artist” while us Joe soaps are penalized to the brink to pay for his mistakes, morally bankrupt and as bad as his “boss” CJ ….
No Norm – plenty.
You looking for gov’t to create a job for every person and hand it to them?
You made my point – cheers.
When do you want the job man to call around and give you your job?
Cb thought so you’re talking through your rear end like alot of others.
Basically your’re saying 350, 000 on the dole because they’re snobs and lazy.I think mummy needs to ban you from the net till you grow up.
Btw I’m gainfully employed and have been since college, so don’t throw that old chestnut at me.
Nevin institute is a joke, some lad yesterday going on about if we don’t cut 3 or so billion from the budget we be better off because of all the extra spending and spin off job creation.
Someone should tell them we are a small open economy and half our spending flows out of the economy
have your say