International

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong has joined fellow MEPs from the centre-right European People’s Party and the Greens in lodging a proposal that would result in the blocking of the money allocated by the European Commission to its nine hundred advisory expert groups. ‘For years I’ve tried during informal negotiations with the Commission to bring about a more balanced composition within these expert groups,’ says De Jong. ‘The Commission has now told social organisations that no such dialogue exists and it is unwilling to go through with the advisory groups’ reform. In that case we have only one means at our disposal and that is to block the budget for this policy.’

The international community must give a ceasefire in Ukraine the chance to remain intact. This goes for Russia, the European Union and NATO, all of which have over the last few months, instead of showing restraint, added fuel to the fire. If the government of the civil war-plagued land manages to negotiate a ceasefire with the rebels in eastern Ukraine, the country must be helped by all possible means to arrive at a political solution to the crisis. SP Senator Tiny Kox made these points during a speech in Paris, where the Council of Europe is meeting this week, a meeting attended  by Kox in his role as president of the Left Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the organisation, of which every European country is a member.