SP International :: Representatives

The SP’s European Team

Since the European elections of 1999 the SP has been represented in the European Parliament by Erik Meijer. In the European elections of 2004 the party won a much larger share of the vote, giving it a second MEP, Kartika Liotard.

The SP forms part of the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left, the GUE-NGL (see the GUE-NGL’s own website), the fifth largest EP group with 41 members from 17 different political parties and 14 member states.

Members of Parliament

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Dennis de Jong (1955) has been leader of the SP's representation in the European Parliament since June 2009. "What links together all the aspects of my social and political life? Standing up for people suffering oppression.” Migration, human rights and corruption are therefore often found in his resume. Read more about Dennis de Jong...

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Kartika Liotard lives in Borculo in the Achterhoek district of the Netherlands but is frequently in Brussels, having been elected a Member of the European Parliament in 2004. After studying Dutch law Kartika continued her education with research into European legislation and the role of whistle-blowers. Read more about Kartika Liotard

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Staff

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Thomas Gijselaers is principally responsible for providing support as a policy advisor to Kartika Liotard in her work as a Member of the European Parliament. Qualified in law, Thomas hales from the South Limburg region. Food safety forms an important part of Thomas's agenda, as do public health and the environment.

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Reinout Heijdra Reinout Heijdra lives in Delft and started in 2009, first as a volunteer, for the SP European team. This human geographer has a work history in education, among others as a teacher of geography. Reinout provides support to Dennis de Jong in his committee work, mainly focussing on social-economic topics.

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Niels Jongerius arrived to strengthen the Brussels SP team in 2009 and, in addition to press and publicity work he organises demonstrations and other actions. As a student of European Studies in Groningen he was active in the SP, including in the party's youth organisation ROOD.

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Femke Reudler Talsma was a student of European Studies in Arabic and is a member of the Amsterdam Central District Council. Formerly a policy worker at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, she is now attached to the SP team in Brussels and is mainly responsible for social and economic subjects, human rights and the implementation of the transparency action plan.

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Sophie Rosseels has in the past mainly been responsible for the financial and economic management of the SP's European team, but is at the moment assisting Kartika Liotard in her work with the Committee for Gender Equality and Women's Rights. Sophie studied medical social sciences and recently completed her studies as a social gerontologist.

 

 

In keeping with the Code of Conduct agreed by all Dutch Euro-MPs, the SP delegation each year draws up an account of its actually-incurred travel expenses, the amount received from the European Parliament in reimbursement, and the difference between the two sums, which is then repaid to the Parliament authorities.

For (email) address details see the Contact page.