Nieuws van de afdeling

30 November 2011

Iraq: Van Bommel urges postponement of closure of Camp Ashraf

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel has welcomed Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal’s promise to present the case in the EU Council of Ministers for a postponement of the closure of Camp Ashraf in Iraq. The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to clear out the camp’s inhabitants, many of them member of the Iranian group the Mujahidin Khalk, and intends to close the facility by January 1st, 2012. ‘Foreign Minister Rosenthal has promised to present the case at European level for more time to be allowed to find a solution for the inhabitants of Camp Ashraf,’ says Van Bommel.

28 November 2011

Leijten: ‘Turn the Olympic subsidy tap off’

SP Member of Parliament Renske Leijten is urging the government to put a stop to the subsidy to the organisation of the 2028 Olympic Games in the Netherlands. ‘I’d like to hold this cabinet to its own mantra,’ she says ‘that a good product sells itself. If the Olympic Games are so profitable, then it shouldn’t be hard to find partners in the private sector.’

28 November 2011

Council of Europe looks on as Russia votes

Tiny Kox

24 November 2011

De Jong demands referendum on European Economic Government

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong has called for a referendum in the Netherlands on plans fro a European Economic Government. ‘The eurocrisis plans of the European Commission and EU heads of government follow one after the other ever more rapidly,’ he said. ‘It’s now or never. I want the Dutch people to be given the chance, as rapidly as is practical, to express their views via a referendum on the proposals for an Economic Government.’

24 November 2011

De Jong: European Commission has a calculator but no heart

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong has described new proposals from the European Commission as ‘the latest example of European budget fetishism’. They are, he says, ‘aimed lopsidedly at budgetary discipline. With these measures the European Commission is trying to resolve the Eurocrisis with a calculator and no heart.’ In the SP’s view the proposals are technocratic and fail to understand that intelligent policy always demands a consideration of a range of interests. As De Jong says ‘ you don’t need a degree in economics to know that if every member state cuts its spending at the same time, the whole of Europe will have to deal with negative economic growth. What we’re risking here are years of recession.’

23 November 2011

Van Bommel: ‘Human rights lose out to trade interests’

After years during which the foreign policy of the Netherlands was guided by human rights, trade policy has now gained the upper hand. That was SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel ‘s main criticism of Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal during today’s debate on the Foreign Affairs budget.

International