Nieuws van de afdeling

24 May 2010

Weeklog Kartika Liotard: CO2 reduction

A lot of people consider the recent climate summit in Copenhagen a failure. A partial agreement was reached, but the conference proved unable to deliver real sustainability. The 192 countries present, rich and poor, developed and developing, turned out to be incapable of agreeing even what information they should be exchanging over how far they have got in reducing their CO2 emissions.

21 May 2010

Kox: More support urgently needed for European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg needs urgent support if it is to make inroads into colossal waiting lists. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans are currently awaiting rulings from the continent's highest court, with waiting periods reaching up to eight years. SP Senator Tiny Kox wants to see the Council of Europe make it an absolute priority that every European who appeals to the ECHR can expect effective justice.

21 May 2010

SP 'thinks global', says 'Vote Without Frontiers'

The SP election manifesto has earned praise from Kies Grenzeloos ('Vote Without Frontiers') for its approach to international issues such as climate change, the fight against poverty, sustainability and social responsibility.

19 May 2010

EU rejects 'meat glue'

At Wednesday's session of the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, MEPs voted by a majority of 370 to 262 to reject the use of 'meat glue'. Meat glue is the name given to the enzyme trombine, used by the meat industry in the processing of offcuts into such products as hamburgers or sausages. The glue is also used to hold meat offcuts together in a way which enables the final product to be sold as a new piece of meat. SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard sees this as deception. "Anyone who attempts to sell a steak under the description 'bound meat pieces' is being deliberately misleading. Nobody is likely to understand this label, and in a restaurant the meat doesn't carry a label, and you're never going to be able to monitor the catering industry on this point. Food health inspectors have got better things to do."

19 May 2010

De Jong: EU crisis measures lack any prospect of promoting recovery

EU Finance Ministers met yesterday to work out what measures could be taken at European level to deal with the crisis. Their plans consist primarily of spending cuts and budget discipline. According to Dennis de Jong, Chair of the SP group in the European Parliament, these plans lack any vision of structural economic recovery and will undermine Europe's social character.

18 May 2010

Dutch Minister will not end Antillean tax havens

SP Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak is urging Jan Kees de Jager, Christian Democrat Finance Minister in the outgoing government, to put an end to the special economic zones on the Dutch Antillean islands of Bonaire and St Eustace. Following a recent referendum on their future constitutional status, the two islands, long part of the colonial possession known as the Dutch Antilles, will become special municipalities of the Netherlands itself. The island of Curaçao, which will become an autonomous state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is under pressure from the SP to dismantle its own ten tax havens, but is wary of unfair competition from neighbouring Bonaire. The Dutch government, however, wants to see the special economic zones, within which corporations pay little or no tax, maintained.

International