Nieuws van de afdeling

19 November 2012

End support for illegal settlements

The designation 'Made in Israel' on a range of products can be deceptive, as they may also come from the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. The customs service must exercise stricter controls.

18 November 2012

Merkies: Greek debt annulment unavoidable

The government must abandon its resistance to annulment of the Greek debt. Postponement would only mean still more damage to both the Greek and the Dutch economy, argues SP Member of Parliament and economics spokesman Arnold Merkies in the run-up to the debate on his initiative on Greece. ‘Spending cuts are not going to reverse the current economic shrinkage,’ says Merkies. 'Such cuts will even work in the opposite direction. At the same time EU governments have only saddled Greece with more debts. A one-off total solution is needed so that confidence in the Greek economy is restored. Otherwise, the danger is that later costs will be still higher.’

13 November 2012

De Jong will cross-examine European Commission candidate

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong will today question candidate for the European Commission Tonio Borg during a hearing in the European Parliament. Borg, who is Maltese, has been nominated as replacement, to take office next month, for the Commissioner for health and consumer rights John Dalli, who has gone as a result of an investigation into his close links with the tobacco lobby. ‘A European Commissioner, and certainly a Commissioner for health and consumer rights, should not be secretive over his contacts with the tobacco lobby,’ says De Jong, ‘so I want Borg to say how he plans to dispel the smokescreen surrounding the tobacco lobby.’

9 November 2012

Greek rescue package is a lead lifebelt

In the media it received only limited attention, but this week the whole of Greece was turned upside down as a general strike paralysed much of the country just as the Greek Parliament was giving its agreement to the latest round of austerity. The economy is shrinking, people are getting poorer by the day or emigrating. With the situation so explosive, we present this short report.

7 November 2012

De Jong: European Parliament should listen to Europe’s people, not Merkel

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong wants the European Parliament to organise a hearing with European trade unions and anti-poverty groups in the near future. ‘The European Parliament is certainly listening to people like Merkel who represent the big corporations and banks,’ says De Jong, ‘but not to the people who have suffered most under the crisis.’

6 November 2012

Yet again, errors in EU expenditure

For the eighteenth year in succession, the European Court of Auditors has withheld approval of EU’s accounts. The number of errors relating to expenditure detected by the Court of Auditors has grown from 3.7% to 3.9 % of the overall budget of €129.4 billion, amounting to some €5 billion. ‘While in the past the percentage of errors was at least falling a little year-on-year,’ says SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong, ‘it has risen since the present Commission came into office from 3.3% to 3.9%. Pumping moneys back and forth between national capitals and Brussels and back again, poor monitoring by the member states are leading to needless waste of taxpayers’ money. Even a relatively simple proposal such as the demand for an explanation of the accounts per member state has not been accepted by this Commission. That’s why the situation is continuing to deteriorate each year. We have to stop pumping money about and, for example, by introducing such national audit certification, improve the monitoring in the member states.´

International