International

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel has asked Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen to insist to President Obama that US nuclear weapons be removed from the Netherlands. According to Van Bommel, the SP's foreign affairs spokesman, Verhagen should be following the example set by German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "Steinmeier has stated that American nuclear weapons must be removed from Germany," says Van Bommel. "Verhagen must offer his support for this and, in addition, put the stationing of nuclear weapons on F-16 war planes in Volkel, in our country, on the agenda of negotiations."

With this statement, SP Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak gives voice to his conviction that the Dutch Antilles remains a tax haven, and that for this reason the islands' debts should not be written off. Van Raak was reacting to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which has announced that in its view the islands can no longer be described as a tax haven. “According to the OECD everything on the islands is hunky dory," says Van Raak, "because they are cooperating with requests for information. In the meantime tax avoidance via the Antilles continues."