Nieuws van de afdeling

25 October 2012

De Jong demands Barroso appears before European Parliament to explain Dalli’s departure

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong wants European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to give his explanation of the departure from his post of European Commissioner John Dalli. Dalli was the subject of an enquiry from EU fraud watchdog OLAF during which he was accused of having too close links with a Swedish tobacco producer. Today, the director of OLAF appeared before the Parliament to give information on the affair, behind closed doors. 'Following the meeting with OLAF myself and my fellow MEPs still have a number of questions regarding Dalli,’ says De Jong. ‘These questions should be cleared up as quickly as possible and that can only be done by Commission president Barroso.'

25 October 2012

Ban these armed and crewless aircraft

After two failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States are, in the course of their so-called war in terror, making ever more frequent use of drones. These uncrewed aircraft are being deployed to kill suspected terrorists without any form of trial.

25 October 2012

Merkies: ‘Yet more loans no solution for Greece’

SP Member of Parliament Arnold Merkies is calling on the government to make it clear, at the earliest possible opportunity, that it will not cooperate in delivering a third package of loans to Greece. ‘Before the elections Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Greece should not count on receiving a multi-billion loan for a third time,’ says Merkies. ‘I want the prime Minister now to say whether he stands by these words.’

24 October 2012

De Jong: Extending and upgrading EU-Israel trade agreement sends wrong signal

The European Parliament will today almost certainly vote to upgrade and extend the trade agreement between the EU and Israel. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong will be voting against. ‘Offering Israel more trade privileges is really sending a wrong signal,’ he explains. ‘Yet this treaty would allow Israeli goods from the Occupied Territories of Palestine to be imported into Europe under the label “Made in Israel”. I proposed that the Council of Ministers issue a separate declaration that leaves these products out of the agreement and insists on effective surveillance of their provenance, but a majority in the European Parliament won’t even accept that.’

24 October 2012

Gesthuizen: refugee policy must change

Since a number of weeks ago asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected have been camping out in tents in Amsterdam and The Hague. On Tuesday, SP Member of Parliament Sharon Gesthuizen joined MPs from a number of other parties in a meeting with a number of those involved and several experts on related issues. Amongst those present alongside people living in the camps were Amsterdam’s Labour mayor Eberhard van der Laan, Professor Thomas Spijkerboer, a specialist in migration law, and John van Tilborg from the Nationwide Consultation of Municipalities on Reception and Return Policy (known by its Dutch acronym, LOGO).

19 October 2012

SP Survey: Police officers don’t want the ‘weed pass’

Police officers can see no advantage to the so-called ‘weed pass’ and would like to see the new scheme, under which people wishing to smoke cannabis must register and must be resident in the Netherlands, abolished. Abolition is advocated by more than 70% of police officers interviewed by SP Member of Parliament Nine Kooiman. Almost 90% of the officers are against the pass being introduced nationally, as opposed to in the southern part of the country where it is already in operation. ‘This is a cry for help from the people who are daily seeing what a disaster the weed pass has been,’ says Kooiman. ‘I hope that the minister is not deaf to these appeals. We must take the only correct decision as soon as possible and abolish the weed pass

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