International

The European Parliament Budget Committee today lent its support to the SP proposal to freeze part of the moneys for the nine hundred expert groups, the European Commission’s advisory bodies. Explaining the motive behind the proposal, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said, ‘For years now, during informal negotiations with the Commission, I’ve tried to get these expert groups to be more evenly balanced. We’ve made absolutely no progress on this, but the Commission has created the impression amongst social organisations that this dialogue would be ended after the elections. Today the European Parliament has let it be known that this isn’t acceptable. I believe that in a few weeks the plenary meeting of the EP will confirm this decision. Then the Commission will have nowhere to hide.’

16 Sep 2014 On 10th September the Dutch Parliament debated two major investment treaties with Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), between the EU and the US, and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), between the EU and Canada. These treaties create one big internal market covering all of the countries involved. Ploumen sees for the most part advantages in these treaties, joyfully claiming that ‘the whole world will profit from the TTIP’, but in doing so she turns a blind eye to the dangers they bring.