International

'The right to food takes precedence over economic interests, and I’m pleased that Parliament agrees with the SP on this.’ So said SP Member of Parliament Henk van Gerven as his proposal to exclude subsidised European industrial fishing boats from African waters won a majority. ‘We must prevent the coastal waters of Guinea-Bissau from being emptied of fish by the theft of this primary foodstuff of coastal communities.’

This week it was discovered that two Czech Euro-MPs have breached the integrity rules of the European Parliament by failing to disclose their ownership of shares in a certain business. The firm in question, eHealth International, makes electronic patient files, and the two MEPs have in recent years been involved in EU regulation affecting this sector. Dennis de Jong, SP Member of the European Parliament, says that ‘this is the umpteenth incident that demonstrates that a new Code of Conduct for MEPs cannot be delayed a moment longer.’