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Blog Dennis de Jong

16 February 2014

Dennis de Jong:

European elections – this time it’s different

The countdown has begun: fewer than a hundred days to the European elections on 22nd May, and less than a week before the SP national congress, where the election manifesto and list of candidates will be voted on by the party’s supreme decision-making organ. The European Parliament has adopted a motto for the elections: This time it’s different. In itself an empty slogan, but the SP can certainly agree with what it does say: these elections concern nothing more nor less than the preservation of our national democracy. Will the Netherlands become a province of Europe or will we remain at the controls? In the past we thought that it would never come to this, but this time is indeed different: it’s make or break!

9 February 2014

Dennis de Jong:

Fight against Brussels regulations – but the right ones

The SP has fought against Brussels interference for years, and now, with the European elections in the offing, you are starting to hear other parties too suddenly calling for fewer Brussels rules and regulations.

2 February 2014

Dennis de Jong:

Stop this crazy plan for compulsory spy-boxes in private cars

This week in the European Parliament we will debate once more a proposal to make it a legal duty for car manufacturers to include a box that automatically phones emergency services in the event of an accident. Handy and life-saving? Or not? Emergency services have not made preparations for it, but lots of firms find data about where you have been driving extremely interesting and these data will also be recorded by the box. For these companies, the box can’t come soon enough. In the SP’s view, every driver should be able to decide for him- or herself whether to install such a box or not, but under pressure from major corporations the majority in the European Parliament want to make their permanent use compulsory for all.

26 January 2014

Dennis de Jong:

Surely we’re not going to leave the truck drivers out in the cold?

Employment and Social Affairs Minister Lodewijk Asscher may have put the exploitation of workers from other member states employed in the Netherlands on the agenda in Brussels, but it hasn’t made much of an impact. This week I heard that European Commissioner Siim Kallas will not be supporting our call for concrete proposals to combat exploitation in road transport. At best he will produce a report on the present situation. Kallas isn’t ignoring only our proposals, but Asscher’s ideas too. On 10th February the Dutch truck drivers’ organisation ‘Chauffeurstoekomst (Samen Sterk)’ [Drivers’ Future (Strong Together)] and German counterparts Action in Transport in Amersfoort will hold a common demonstration in Amersfoort, Netherlands, and Paul Ulenbelt, SP spokesman employment in the Dutch national parliament, will be there, as will I. In my view this will be the first action of many, ending up at the European Commission’s offices in Brussels.

19 January 2014

Dennis de Jong:

The SP and the British Eurosceptic right

This week I paid a quick visit to London to attend a conference on the reform of the European Union. The conference was organised by the British think tank Open Europe. My conclusion at the end of the day was that many British people have the same concerns as the SP regarding the undermining of national democracy by the increasingly far-reaching transfer of powers to Brussels. It’s just a pity that the British Conservatives remain committed to marketisation; because where the market rules, democracy takes a back seat.

19 January 2014

Dennis de Jong:

The SP and the British Eurosceptic right

12 January 2014

Dennis de Jong:

The Maltese breach

Next week in Strasbourg at the European Parliament plenary one of the subjects under discussion will be the new law in Malta which allows you to buy a Maltese passport for €650.000 (about £549,000/$890,000). This will then enable you to travel freely around almost every country in the European Union (UK & Ireland are the only permanent negotiated exceptions) with all of the rights that freedom of movement carries. A burdensome matter, because this is of course not a good thing at all: anyone with a well-stocked wallet, even the greatest of criminals, can set themselves up in the EU. Questions of naturalisation, however, go right to the heart of state sovereignty: quite correctly the Commission is not empowered to take action in this area. The question then arises as to whether we, if Malta wants to extend citizenship to foreign nationals on this basis, must go along and allow access to our country for these new citizens. A protest is, in any case, on the cards.

5 January 2014

Dennis de Jong:

What does the SP want from the euro in 2014?

A very happy 2014 to all readers of this weeklog. Friday evening we got the year off to a rapid start with what the Netherlands’ Radio 1 billed as ‘the first debate between the candidates topping each party’s list for the European elections of 2014’. I was participating as the incumbent MEP and the nominee for the number one position for the SP, though this remains to be confirmed by the party’s highest decision-making body, the National Congress, at its pre-election meeting in February. At the end things became rather heated, with the Labour Party (PvdA), Christian Democrats (CDA) and Green Left (GL) at last wanting to know for once what the SP thinks about the euro. Apparently this isn’t clear, so I’ll use this weeklog to make it so with this declaration: we don’t want any more sacrifices made for the euro, but nor are we seeking the currency’s rapid downfall. We do want to see measures taken which will prevent its unravelling, whether that should come sooner or later, from causing more damage than necessary.

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