“The EU should economise, not tax", says SP Member of Parliament and European affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel in reaction to plans, recently announced by the European Commission, for a European tax. "We have nothing against European coordination of taxes," he adds. "That's why we are strong supporters of a minimum corporation tax to counter tax competition. But European interference in tax systems should go no further than that.”
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by Ewout Irrgang • A recent World Bank report reveals that speculation was a major cause of the huge increase in food prices during 2007 and 2008. While banks such as Goldman Sachs and the Deutsche Bank raked in huge profits, hundreds of millions of people in developing countries, and most of all children, suffered hunger as a result of rising prices.
SP Member of Parliament Henk van Gerven believes that the direct financing of patients' groups by the pharmaceutical industry should be subject to more effective control. He proposes that patients' groups be funded from health care funds based on premiums rather than through sponsorship. "Patients' organisations must be independent if they are to operate critically. That's impossible as long as their continued existence is dependent on a single medical producer."