International

French President Emmanuel Macron's speech before the European Parliament this morning left ordinary people standing out in the cold. Reacting to Macron's performance, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said: ´Macron's huge panoramas are well-known, but he behaves like a giant with feet of clay. While he is creating chaos in France with his diehard neoliberal policies, he expects the European Union to stand by him. France's parliament, the Assemblée Nationale, which is the body closest to the country's citizens, is shoved aside by means of presidential decrees, while the institution which is furthest away from ordinary people, the EU, is supposed to restore democracy. That's completely beyond belief.'

Developing countries may become the victims of pharmaceutical companies which are selling their products at unaffordably high prices, because the European Commission is failing to make good on its own promises. SP Euro-MP and trade specialist  Anne-Marie Mineur has sent an urgent letter, signed by MEPs from her own United European Left group and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats,  to Commissioner for International Trade Cecilia Malmström, calling on the Commission not to undermine world-wide access to medicines. The immediate cause of the MEPs’ action is the negotiations on the free trade treaty between the EU and India, which resume today.