International

Prolongation of the Dutch military mission in Uruzgan can do nothing further to help Afghanistan and is primarily a move to prevent NATO from suffering the loss of face it fears it would undergo should the mission be discontinued. So argues SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel in reaction to the government's decision to extend the Netherlands' military presence in the country until at least 2010. “This decision means that we are once again investing a billion euros in an impossible armed mission, while we would be doing a lot more to help the Afghan people if we were to invest instead in the reconstruction of education, health care and infrastructure in the more stable, peaceful areas,” Van Bommel said.

Employment Minister Piet Hein Donner, whose plan for so-called 'liberalisation' of national laws protecting workers from unfair dismissal was recently rejected in parliament, must now reject similar plans brought forward under the European Commission's 'flexicurity' programme, designed to make the labour market more 'flexible'. SP Member of Parliament and employment spokesman Paul Ulenbelt, in calling on Donner to reflect the will of the Dutch people's elected representatives when he represents the country in the EU's Council of Ministers, insists that a law thrown out by parliament must not be allowed to sneak in through the back door via European Union legislation.