Nieuws van de afdeling

14 December 2011

Top EU officials secure their own salaries

The European Commission is keen to maintain the ample salaries and bonuses of its senior officials. In order to be able to do this, they will cut the pay of the least well-paid, those who usually perform supporting and administrative tasks. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong, commenting on the decision, said: ‘The Commission is leaving officials who earn more than Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel pretty well untouched, while at the same time cutting the salaries of newly appointed administrative personnel by 18%, almost a fifth. In the SP’s view this is the world turned upside down.’

13 December 2011

Israel uses teargas in ways which are illegal

On Friday 9th December 28-year-old Palestinian Mustafa Tamimi was shot in the face by an Israeli soldier from close range with a tear gas grenade. That night he died from his wounds. He was the first fatal casualty from the village of Nabi Saleh where protests have been taking place since December 2009 against the annexation of a hill and an important source of water, for the benefit of the Israeli settlement of Halamish. He was certainly not the first victim of banned uses of teargas. Israeli soldiers regularly use teargas in ways which are not permitted, to attack and wound unarmed civilians rather than to disperse them.

12 December 2011

SP : ‘Stop American blackmail on personal data’

SP Member of Parliament Sharon Gesthuizen is becoming increasingly annoyed at the way in which the US government is attempting to persuade the Netherlands to break its own privacy rules. ‘If we don’t do as the US says, they’re threatening to refuse to allow flights from Europe. Pure blackmail. The government here should never agree to this.'

9 December 2011

‘People must be given chance to express their views on new European treaties’

The Dutch people must be given the chance to express their views on the new European treaty between the seventeen Eurozone countries as well as the European Stability Mechanism treaty establishing a permanent emergency fund, argues SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang. As a consequence of the new treaties the Netherlands’ control over its own budget will be strongly restricted and the Dutch government will lose its veto powers over the permanent emergency fund.

9 December 2011

‘Ten billion extra in spending cuts in the middle of a new crisis is idiotic’

Far from cutting a further ten billion from expenditure, the government should be stimulating the economy, argues SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang. 'New cuts can push the Dutch economy over the brink and into recession and will make the Eurocrisis even worse,” he says.

9 December 2011

Van Bommel urges UN enquiry into CIA prisons

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is urging the UN to launch an enquiry into secret CIA prisons in Europe. Van Bommel’s call comes after yesterday’s revelation of a secret detention facility in Romania. ‘For years we have been asking questions about secret prisons in which prisoners of the Americans may be suffering torture, yet on numerous occasions our government has denied their existence. Now it’s time to leave no stone unturned in this affair.’

International