Nieuws van de afdeling

8 May 2014

SP proposals to tackle illegal practices in road transport included on agenda of EU Transport Ministers

Today the EU Council of Transport Ministers meets in Greece for its periodic ‘informal’ meeting. Amongst other issues they will discuss proposals recently handed to European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas by Dennis de Jong and like-minded MEPs.

6 May 2014

Superstate no, cooperation yes

Are you unwilling any longer to charge headlong towards an ever more powerful European Superstate? Do you want from now on to have the last word when it comes to what we in our own country decide and not leave it to Brussels’ meddling? Do you want to cooperate when cooperation is useful, but keep control of everything that we can better regulate for ourselves? Then you must decide who will best make your voice heard in Europe.

6 May 2014

Now on to May 22nd

The splendid evening had arrived, the evening of March 19th. The day of the local elections was once again just as unreal as all those other election nights that I have experienced. A strange silence falls over the country and the party. The work is done, the campaign fought, and it’s the voters’ turn to have their say. And we had doubled our council seats! Who would have thought that?

3 May 2014

De Jong: Government must finally take action on European asylum centres

Cooperation over asylum between EU member states has ground to a halt. The number of people requesting asylum is growing ever greater. This is especially true in Italy, Greece, Spain and Bulgaria, but the Netherlands too is having to cope with more asylum seekers who have travelled unlawfully through other European countries. ‘Countries with long exterior borders are increasingly failing to process requests for asylum, while refused asylum seekers can often not be deported to their country of origin. Detention of such people is then used as a means of pressuring the asylum seekers to move on independently, so that they end up being detained intermittently for years. Medical attention, in addition, is inadequate, leading to degrading situations.’

29 April 2014

Monument unveiled to victims of Halabja

Tuesday afternoon in The Hague saw the unveiling of the monument in commemoration of the victims of the poison gas attack on Halabja, which took place twenty-six years ago. The monument is the result of an initiative from citizens in The Hague, which was actively supported by the SP.

28 April 2014

De Jong draws up balance of five years’ work during visit to small businesses in horticulture

On 23rd April SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong paid a visit to the members’ meeting of the Dutch association of interior landscapers in the village of De Lier to discuss the European elections and their relevance to small and medium-sized enterprises. ‘Five years ago I picked up a shopping list of things that the Dutch body representing small businesses and organisations representing each sector wanted to see,’ said De Jong. ‘That list has guided my activities in the European Parliament and today I will be happy to draw up a balance, and hope I will once again be given a new wishlist. Small businesses are not paid much attention in Brussels, certainly in cases where their interests are other than those of corporations.‘ The small business people in attendance were impressed by the results achieved and with how seriously the SP was taking the fulfilment of concrete promises. ‘It’s fantastic that the president of the body representing small- and medium-sized businesses, Michaël van Straalen of MKB-NL, has called the SP the most small business-minded party in the Netherlands,’ De Jong added. ‘That brings obligations with it, however. During the next five years I want to prove once again that the SP isn’t just paying lip service to small businesses, but works at representing their interests.’

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