Nieuws van de afdeling

17 October 2013

De Jong and social organisations slam EU’s role in the struggle against poverty

‘Current EU policy increases poverty’. That was the main conclusion of a broad, SP-organised conference of anti-poverty groups held in Brussels. ‘The organisations picked apart every detail of the poverty policies of the European Commission and the European Council,’ says SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong. ‘Not only does it turn out that combatting poverty is absolutely not a priority, the Commission’s current focus on one-sided austerity policies aimed at achieving the 3% deficit norm is bringing about the greatest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. The latest is that the Commission is pursuing policies which are strangling what’s left of the welfare state and thus making poverty a permanent condition for a considerable portion of the European population. This is entirely at odds with the story that the European Commission is so eager to repeat, that the worst of the crisis is over and that the EU contributes to the fight against poverty.’

16 October 2013

Van Bommel: end the ‘Netherlands-Russia Year’

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel believes that the physical attack on a Dutch diplomat in Russia should put an immediate end to the festivities around the Netherlands-Russia Year. King Willem-Alexander must reconsider plans to visit Russia on November 9th, Van Bommel argues. ‘The last few weeks have seen a rapid sequence of incidents between the Netherlands and Russia,’ he says. ‘There is really no reason any more to go ahead with a festive end to the bilateral year.’

11 October 2013

Van Bommel: Nobel Prize for OPCW is deserved

The SP is absolutely delighted by the award of the Nobel Prize for peace to the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which, as SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel says, is certainly deserved. ‘The OPCW is playing an important role in relation to the conflict in Syria and has demonstrated this year that it can react quickly and effectively to a crisis,’ he says. ‘The importance of the organisation has grown markedly. The award is at the same time an encouragement to more countries to join the ban on chemical weapons.’

11 October 2013

De Jong supports truck drivers’ protests

European trade unions yesterday launched protest actions to force the European Commission to intervene against abuses in the road transport industry which the unions describe as ‘modern slavery’. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said: ‘The truck drivers stories show clearly the exploitation of foreign workers, the avoidance of social payments, and unfair competition from box number companies. Earlier in the year, on the basis of almost 3,000 complaints, I presented a “black book” to EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas. So the problems have been known about for a long time and by a lot of people, but we’re still waiting for concrete measures.’

10 October 2013

De Jong: recognise victims of Russian anti-homosexual legislation as refugees

At the request of SP Euro-MP Dennis De Jong and others, a debate took place in the European Parliament this morning on the persecution of the LGBT community in Russia. ‘Homosexuals in Russia are confronted daily with intimidation and violence,’ says De Jong. ‘Instead of dealing with this vigorously, the Russian government is passing legislation forbidding so-called homosexual propaganda. To date the EU’s reaction has been confined to fine words. I want now to see more effective measures, such as the recognition as refugees of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals who are forced to leave their own country as a result of violence. We could also suspend visa liberalisation with Russia: no gifts for human rights abusers.’

7 October 2013

Give European human rights better protection

'It is of the greatest importance that the Council of Europe remains the European benchmark for the development of the rule of law, the protection of human rights and the advancement of democracy in the organisation’s forty-seven member states. But if we want to maintain that position, we also have to deliver quality’’ said SP Senator Tiny Kox in Strasbourg, where the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is meeting this week. PACE will take a critical look at the Council of Europe’s own performance record as well as recent European Union initiatives in the area of human rights.

International