Nieuws van de afdeling

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.

23 November 2011

Dutch government recognises euro was full of flaws

Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager considers that ‘with the knowledge we have now the euro would not have been introduced.’ During the annual debate on the national budget in the Senate, De Jager told SP Senator Geert Reuten that there were many flaws in the euro which it was now difficult to do anything about. At the time of the euro’s introduction these flaws were pointed out by a large number of sceptical economists as well as by the SP. Then, they weren’t listened to. But now...

18 November 2011

Brussels, keep your hands off our pensions!

We’ve long warned about it, but from a leaked document which has fallen into the hands of our European Parliament team, it now seems clear: Brussels has it in for our pension system, the world’s best.

16 November 2011

Support for oppressed peoples in China

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel, speaking on behalf of the SP today on Het Plein, the square in front of the parliament building in The Hague, expressed the party’s solidarity with the Tibetan, Uyghur and other peoples who are oppressed in China. Earlier in the day he asked Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal to ensure that the Dutch Ambassador for Human Rights would visit these peoples. The minister undertook to do all he could to make this possible.

16 November 2011

Irrgang and Ferrier open exhibition on female condom

Two Members of Parliament, the SP’s Ewout Irrgang and Christian Democrat Kathleen Ferrier this morning opened an exhibition in the Parliament building in The Hague on the subject of the female condom. The two opened the exhibition on behalf of the Multi-Party Initiative HIV/Aids. The exhibition forms part of the Paper Doll campaign, aimed at calling attention to the importance of the female condom.

15 November 2011

EU rules against speculators only a first step

The European Parliament has approved the draft European Union Regulation designed to deal with speculation in exchange losses, albeit to an inadequate extent. Many aspects of the problem of speculation are, however, not subject to any regulation. Commenting on the measure, SP Euro-MP Dennis De Jong said: 'I’m enthusiastic about the ban on speculating in exchange losses on shares and bonds which you don’t actually own, so-called naked short selling. The way in which this will work in practice is, however, left to the European supervisory authority and in these sorts of cases every detail counts. When the proposals are presented at the end of this year I’ll be taking a close look at them.’

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