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News 2012

19 December 2012

European Parliament supports SP in demanding action on contracts which keep franchise-holders in stranglehold

Voting on 18th December in the European Parliament Internal Market Committtee demonstrated broad support for SP proposals aimed at putting an end to contracts which maintain franchise holders in a stranglehold. Commenting on the vote, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said: ‘Now the European Commission is charged with reforming EU legislation so that franchise-holders regain the decision-making freedom enjoyed by business people.’

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19 December 2012

Put the brakes on biofuels

It’s time to call a halt to the practice of mixing fuels from biomass sources into motor fuels. So said SP Member of Parliament Henk van Gerven during Tuesday afternoon’s debate with Secretary of State for the Environment Wilma Mansveld. The anticipated leap forward to a new generation of biofuels has never materialised, which means that large amounts of food crop plant materials must still be employed. ‘Producing biofuels without making use of food crop plants hasn’t been a success,’ says Van Gerven, ‘so we should simply be taking a step back. The SP would sooner see mouths filled than petrol tanks.’

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18 December 2012

De Jong and Van Dalen launch working group on freedom of religion and philosophical belief

Yesterday saw the launch by a number of MEPs, including the SP’s own Dennis de Jong and fellow Dutchman Peter van Dalen of the Christian Union, of the European Parliament Working Group on freedom of religion and philosophical belief. Commenting on the move, De Jong said: ‘This freedom is one of the fundamental human rights and forms an important touchstone for other human rights in a society. It encompasses the right to follow a religion but also the right not to believe. Christian Union MEP Peter van Dalen added that ‘the EU has in all of its treaties with third countries taken the stance that freedom of religion and philosophical belief will be respected. It’s now up to the EU to call countries that abuse human rights to account over the responsibilities that they take on as a result of these treaties.’

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18 December 2012

De Jong demands improvements to monitoring of labour migration within EU

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong wants to see improved cooperation and exchange of information between national labour inspectorates within the EU. De Jong was joined by fellow MEP Sophie in ’t Veld of the centrist group D66 in calling for moves by the EU member states to drastically improve monitoring of migrant labour and combat abusive labour contractors working on the European level.

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17 December 2012

De Jong’s appeal for strong public broadcasting services finds support in European Parliament

Public broadcasting has an important task in the formation of public opinion and in ensuring that there is and continues to be a diversity of opinion represented on television. This is the position taken in the report from SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong debated today in the European Parliament. ‘In contrast to the Dutch government the majority of political groups in the European Parliament are clearly aware of the important social role played by public broadcasters,’ says De Jong. ‘The EP wants to see a pluralistic and accessible public broadcasting service unburdened by European competition rules. The Parliament also supported my demands for an enquiry into relations pf ownership within commercial broadcasting with a view to preveningt media conglomerates which are currently being formed from having too much power.’

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14 December 2012

De Jong fights in European Parliament for fair tender procedures for small firms

Next Tuesday the Internal Market Committee of the European Parliament will vote on the new European Union rules governing public procurement tendering. Amendments to these rules should make it easier for small businesses to win contracts. ‘We’re not home and hosed just yet,’ says SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong. ‘My proposals to split big contracts into smaller units appeared to have broad support but the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (PASD) are retreating on this. I’ll be putting everything into greatly improving the procurement rules with this vote.’

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