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News 2007

30 December 2007

SP speaks out against banning Iranian students from attending Technical Universities

SP Members of Parliament Harry van Bommel and Renske Leijten today presented the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Education with parliamentary questions regarding the refusal of Technical Universities (TUs) in the Netherlands to continue to accept Iranians either as students or as staff. The move by the TUs followed a demand from the national Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) for guarantees that Iranians working or studying in universities would not have access to information on nuclear technologies.

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20 December 2007

Duty on kerosene would help combat climate change

The amount of attention given to climate change has grown hugely. Quite rightly, as it is a problem of which almost everyone has experience. It is remarkable that air travel, as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, remains invariably out of the picture when measures to combat climate change are taken. This sector is responsible for over 10 per cent of the total climate impact of the Netherlands, and without intervention this share is set to double.

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19 December 2007

SP Senator to be Observer at Kenyan Election

SP Senator Eric Smaling will be in Kenya from 20th to 31st December as an official observer at the country's presidential and parliamentary elections. He will visit the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the town of Kisii in the south-west, where he once lived and worked.

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19 December 2007

European Court: Free Movement for Services Will Lead to Social Dumping

Today the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its ruling in the so-called Vaxholm case. The case concerned a Latvian building form operating in Sweden. The firm refused to respect the nationally-negotiated agreement which, under Sweden's usual system of labour relations, determines pay and conditions in the industry. The unions reacted by taking various forms of industrial action, including strikes. The ruling, which went against the unions, came as no surprise to SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard: "That giving firms the freedom to provide services within the internal EU market would provide an opportunity for social dumping always seemed to us unavoidable. The Court has today made this the norm in Europe. I'm not surprised, just angry.”

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19 December 2007

Back to School: SP will join official voices in giving lessons on Europe

Dutch officials who work for the EU will be going back to their old high schools on 14th April next year to speak to classes, according to a government announcement issued today. Because there's a great deal to be said in response to the government's view of this European Union, the SP would like to join in. "MPs, Senators and other elected representatives, members of the party's internally elected executive, and policy advisers will be available on 14th April 2008 to round out the story of the EU," said Harry van Bommel, SP spokesman on European affairs, in parliament today. The occasion was the annual debate held in the Dutch national parliament on the "state of the European Union."

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18 December 2007

SP leader says ‘Support Afghanistan, Stop the War’ as Parliamentary debate on Uruzgan ends

The Netherlands must help Afghanistan, but you don't do that by dropping bombs, said SP leader Jan Marijnissen in this evening's concluding session of the parliamentary debate on the prolongation of the military presence in the troubled province of Uruzgan.

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