International

The European Parliament is to introduce compulsory certification for the import of raw materials from war zones. This will mean that importers will be required to declare that the raw materials in question were mined in a responsible manner. The SP is delighted that the Parliament defied a fierce lobby and voted to approve a compulsory certification system.

The European Commission today presented the new European Migration Agenda. The SP’s European Parliament group is unimpressed, as group chair Dennis de Jong explains.

‘Just beyond the EU’s external frontiers the world is in flames. Every day, people have to be rescued from the Mediterranean Sea. The Commission is still using for this task border guard services whose personnel are specially trained to keep people out. The Commission has, moreover, produced no solution to the problems refugees, and this European Migration Agenda (EMA) is once again contradictory: restrictive when it comes to people in need, and an open immigration policy for the well-educated. This will only increase the number of migrants heading towards Europe.´