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Nieuws uit 2010

14 January 2010

Dutch prime minister finally admits to having broken international law in Iraq War

Since Wednesday evening the government has been exposed, at last: its support in 2003 for the war in Iraq lacked an adequate mandate under international law. It was forced to alter its position after a commission that investigated the Dutch involvement in the Iraq war had concluded that Balkenende’s support lacked any such mandate. The Davids Report, as it is known, cannot be without consequences for the current Dutch government.

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14 January 2010

SP leader demands parliamentary enquiry into Iraq

SP leader Agnes Kant supports the idea of calling former Defence Minister Henk Kamp before parliament to hear what he has to say about the process which led to the decision to give political support to the war in Iraq. An independent commission of enquiry this week declared the war, and the government’s decision, to have been unlawful. “But in addition to Mr Kamp, there’s a number of other people that parliament should be questioning. For example, former minister Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and the weapons inspectors who were involved at the time. We should use the relevant instrument, a parliamentary enquiry. ”

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14 January 2010

SP: vulnerable groups may miss out on Internet access

Today in the European Parliament the hearing took place of European Commissioner-designate Neeli Kroes. The SP called her attention to the issue of Internet access for all, but Kroes was unable to cite any concrete steps she had in mind to achieve this and avoid social division. SP European Parliamentary group leader Dennis de Jong says: ´The Internet has now become so important that you really can't manage without it any more. So everyone should have a right of access. Kroes says that she wants everyone to have the Internet as quickly as possible, but how she will guarantee this is far from clear."

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12 January 2010

Kant: ‘Accessory to an illegal war on false and lying grounds'

“The Davids Commission enquiry shows that the Dutch government was determined to support what they knew to be an illegal invasion of Iraq. Neither the UN resolutions nor the threat of weapons of mass destruction, but blind, docile following of the United States determined our country's policy," says SP leader Agnes Kant.

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8 January 2010

Van Bommel: No EU penalty for a progressive social programme

The Spanish government, which took over the rotating European Union presidency on 1st January, wants the European Commission to be given immediate powers to force the member states to pursue specified economic policies, a matter currently subject only to voluntary agreement. According to SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel, national parliamentary spokesman on European affairs, such a move would threaten to hand the EU the power to force national governments to follow neoliberal policies. “The EU presidency wants to see an economic growth rate of 2% and the power to punish countries which don't do enough to achieve this goal. It shows that neoliberalism is alive and well and living in the European Union. This proposal must be drowned at birth.”

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