International

The huge increase in costs of the European Union's Galileo project should not be passed on to the taxpayer, according to SP Member of Parliament and transport spokesman Emile Roemer. Roemer was responding to revelations in the German Magazine Der Spiegel to the effect that the start up of the European satellite navigation system could cost three times as much as was most recently estimated, amounting in the end to a total of €10 billion. He is asking Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings to explain who is to blame for these costs. "Time after time we've warned about the risks, while all along the project was getting ever more expensive," he says. "But €10 billion is well above even the most pessimistic estimates. This really can't be allowed to go any further."

Thanks to a motion put forward by SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen, fox and chinchilla furs will shortly be banned from import into the Netherlands. The motion from the SP's spokeswoman on animal welfare won support from a majority in parliament, obliging the government to act. Describing herself as “delighted with this success”, Van Velzen said: “In the Netherlands the keeping of foxes and chinchillas for fur production will be banned from 1st April, so it is only logical that importing these products should also be forbidden.”