h

News 2014

24 December 2014

SP calls for intervention in Gaza

The SP’s team in the European Parliament has called on the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs to take action in response to reports of renewed bombings in Gaza, reprisals for attacks on Israeli targets from within the enclave. In July Israel invaded the area, an action which resulted in 2,100 dead and 11,000 wounded, as well as enormous material damage. For the moment, reconstruction is out of the question.

Read more
19 December 2014

Brussels shows what it really is: a neoliberal straitjacket

That countries which don’t belong to the EU will now come under European Economic Governance reveals a dangerous level of audacity, argues SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel.

Read more
17 December 2014

SP welcomes European Parliament support for recognition of Palestine

The SP has welcomed the strong support for the recognition of Palestine expressed today by the European Parliament. Some 70% of MEPs voted in favour of the resolution which did so. The European Parliament does not itself have the power to recognise countries, but is putting pressure on the EU’s member states to offer recognition.

Read more
16 December 2014

SP: Timmermans’ list has little to commend it

With a great deal of fuss, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and his right-hand man Frans Timmermans – until recently the Netherlands’ Foreign Minister – today presented the Commission’s new work programme. The SP finds little to commend in this programme, as the leader of the party’s group in the European Parliament, Dennis de Jong, explains. ‘Some fifty-five of the eighty proposals which the Commission has withdrawn were in any case out of date,’ he says. ‘At the same time the Commission is taking new powers to itself with this programme. They do this with the “reform contracts” in the framework of economic governance, in relation to fiscal policy and energy policy, and via the launch of a “capital union”. Moreover the Commission is using its right to withdraw proposals for its own political ends: they will withdraw a proposal if the outcome of negotiations between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, who between us decide the final text, doesn’t suit them.’

Read more
16 December 2014

Jasper van Dijk: government needs to maintain credibility when it comes to schools in war zones

Foto: SP

It’s beyond comprehension that the government has withdrawn from the struggle against the misuse of schools in times of war, says Jasper van Dijk.

The government must stay active internationally to back the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict. In addition it should itself adopt the Guidelines in its military policy, doctrine and training. If not, it will have little remaining credibility as a leader in the struggle for peace and justice globally.

Read more
11 December 2014

‘Accepted but unwanted’: refugees from Syria seek aid in Turkey

Foto: SP

Party Secretary Hans van Heijningen and Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut recently visited South-Eastern Turkey in order to see with their own eyes the situation of refugees there. Reporting on the visit, Van Heijningen says that ‘the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the flood of refugees which this has brought about have put the fragile peace process between Kurds and Turks under ever greater pressure.’

Read more

More news

You are here