Nieuws van de afdeling

15 May 2012

Van Bommel urges protest against execution of Iranian homosexuals

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel today urged Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal to protest against the threatened execution of four homosexuals in Iran. It is not uncommon for homosexuals to be executed in Iran, but generally after being found guilty of rape. In this case anal intercourse itself, however, was explicitly stated to be the reason for the sentence. Van Bommel has asked the minister to summon the Iranian ambassador and protest against the execution. 'It is unacceptable that people are being put to death as a result of their sexual orientation,’ he says. ‘Rosenthal must exert the strongest diplomatic pressure and do all he can to have this death penalty overturned.'

15 May 2012

Money down the drain: SP questions government on support for World Bank water privatisation funding

Prompted by a report from the campaigning NGO Corporate Accountability International which reveals the World Bank’s shocking bias in favour of the private sector, SP development spokesman Ewout Irrgang put a series of questions to the minister responsible for the government’s support for the programmes in question. Water privatisation has been proven not to help the poor, yet a quarter of all World Bank funding goes directly to corporations. In allocating its funds in this way, the Bank’s funding arm ignores even its own published standards of transparency. It also fails to respond to the failure of privatisation to address the problem of water supply in developing countries. Around a third of all private water contracts signed between 2000 and 2010 have failed or are in extreme difficulties – four times the failure rate of comparable infrastructure projects in the electricity and transport sectors. Below we publish Irrgang’s questions, and Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Ben Knapen’s thoroughly unsatisfactory answers.

10 May 2012

European Parliament backs SP call to amend European investigation order

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says that he is pleased with the support from the European Parliament Committee on Justice and Home Affairs for amendments to the European criminal investigation order. The criminal investigation order directive will govern the exchange of evidence between EU member states. ‘How evidence may legally be gathered touches on the principles of the rule of law,’ says De Jong. ‘Happily I have been able to persuade my colleagues that there are a number of problems with the proposal that needed solving. So there will now be no possibility for member states to ask other countries to gather evidence by means of dubious investigative methods.’

9 May 2012

European Parliament calls halt to Commission spending on expert groups

The European Parliament has refused to release the money budgeted for the European Commission’s expert groups, committees established by the Commission to advise on EU legislation and policy. Commenting on the decision, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says: ‘Together with a broad group of MEPs I presented concrete demands to the Commission. The composition of the expert groups would have to change: no more CEOs masquerading as independent experts. For balance, small business people and representatives of trade unions, environmental groups and consumer advocates should be appointed more frequently. Now that the European Commission has shown itself unwilling to discuss this with us, the Parliament has slammed on the brakes.’

4 May 2012

Van Bommel: 'EU must cut spending on private jets'

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is demanding that the European Union cut its spending on the use of private aircraft without delay. 'According to the European Commission the EU budget for next year will have to increase by almost 7%,’ says Van Bommel . ‘That’s ridiculous enough, but in a time of austerity having yourself flown about at a rate of €20,000 a pop oversteps all reasonable bounds.'

26 April 2012

Government sought to conceal arms sale from Parliament

‘A scandalous strategy from Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal’ was how SP Member of Parliament reacted to the announcement that the government had sought to conceal the sale of tanks to Indonesia from the national Parliament. According to national daily De Telegraaf, Rosenthal wanted to reveal the tank deal only at the moment that the government had successfully negotiated an accord with other parties to enable budget cuts to go through, the so-called Catshuis Agreement, named for the Prime Minister’s official residence, where it was signed. The hope was that the announcement of the agreement would distract any possible attention away from the sale of the tanks. As Van Dijk says, ‘this is a well-known trick of lying politicians. Bring bad news out when the country is busy with other matters. We deserve an apology for this devious way of going about things.’

International