International

On 14th and 15th April NATO Foreign Ministers meet in Berlin. The operation in Libya, Unified Protector, will undoubtedly dominate a great deal of the discussion. But the implementation of the alliance’s new Strategic Concept is also on the agenda. This new Strategic Concept was approved in November 2010. It left, however, a number of crucial questions unanswered. These principally concern the further elaboration and the implementation of NATO’s nuclear policy: what to do with the American strategic nuclear weapons which continue to be stored in Western Europe and in Turkey, to mention only one of these questions.

The SP European Parliament group has welcomed proposals for the internal market presented today by the European Commission, but sees them as containing far too little that is concrete. The Commission has, the SP notes, done a good job of identifying a number of major problems with the internal market, including the need for improved protection of social rights, for faster credit for small businesses, and for specific European rules governing not-for-profit undertakings. Commenting on the proposals, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says, “All these problems must be solved, but as to how this will be achieved, I am waiting in anticipation for the Commission’s concrete proposals.’