International

Nepal has recently been hit by powerful earthquakes which have claimed many thousands of victims. The approaching rainy season will make the risk of landslides so great that people must be rapidly rehoused. Commenting on the situation, SP Member of Parliament Eric Smaling argues that ‘people living in unstable regions in Nepal must be evacuated as quickly as possible to areas where there is less danger. Dutch Development Minister Lilianne  Ploumen must join the government of Nepal and the international community in working hard for this.’ 

Scarcely a day before the scheduled debate on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, European Parliament president Martin Schulz has removed both the debate and the planned vote to establish the Parliament’s opinion from the agenda of the plenary, sending the report back to the Committee on International Trade, a move agreed by committee chair Bernd Lange. Schulz cited the large number of proposed amendments as the reason for his decision, but the SP’s European Parliament team have their doubts.