Nieuws van de afdeling

2 April 2010

Dennis de Jong and Harry van Bommel on the Lisbon Treaty

On Tuesday 30th March national daily NRC Next carried an interview with SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong on the coming into force of the of the Lisbon Treaty. In the interview Dennis de Jong expresses the view that the SP should deal in a pragmatic fashion with the treaty and the possibilities it might offer for a more social Europe. Harry van Bommel also gives his views on the treaty's coming into force and what it means for the SP.

2 April 2010

Weeklog Kartika Liotard: Hard-hearted

The 'EU year for combating poverty and social exclusion' has become, as a result of a deliberate action by the Netherlands, nothing more than a sop. The two governing coalition parties, the Christian Democrats and the Christian Union, both of which are always preaching 'love thy neighbour', profited from the plethora of attention paid to the Greek euro and came out of it smelling of roses. The 80 million Europeans who can't cover their own basic needs have been driven even further down into the margins of a hard existence by this political prank.

31 March 2010

Refusal to implement ban on investment in cluster munitions looks like a bad April Fools' joke

SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen is furious that acting Finance Minister Jan Kees and outgoing Social Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner are refusing to implement a ban on investment in cluster munitions. “Parliament gave its support to a motion from myself and Labour member Martijn Van Dam calling for such a ban," Van Velzen recalled. Under the Dutch system, parliamentary motions of this kind are under normal circumstances binding on the government. "I can only hope that the refusal to implement this ban is an April Fools' joke, although if that's the case it's a bad joke indeed," added the SP defence spokeswoman, who has requested a debate on the matter.

29 March 2010

SP: ‘Tendering is leading to chaos in translation services for asylum seekers'

Failed tendering is leading to chaos in interpretation and translation services for asylum seekers. SP Member of Parliament Arda Gerkens wants to see an immediate end to a system which leaves the service to the market. “Tendering was supposed to make translation and interpretation cheaper," she says, "but what has emerged is that there aren't enough interpreters, they fail to turn up, or they speak the wrong language. It's really total chaos."

28 March 2010

SP: European Parliament Crisis Committee must look into Kroes's penalties on banks

Dennis de Jong, SP group chair in the European Parliament, believes that the special 'crisis committee', of which he is a member, should look into the question of whether Commissioner Neelie Kroes's policy in relation to financial penalties connected to state support for insolvent banks was correct. Dutch state support for the ING bank was amongst those attracting a fine from Brussels. De Jong wants assurance that state support was given in a correct manner in the case of all European banks and to know whether the reaction from Brussels to this support was effective and even-handed.

26 March 2010

Weeklog Kartika Liotard: Water Management

Last Monday was World Water Day. For the 18th time the UN called attention to the issues associated with water. Happily, there's nothing wrong with the quality of Dutch tap water: it's absolutely safe! According to the law, bottled water must be of the same high quality. But for a half-litre of the stuff you can pay as much as € 2, which means that a small bottle costs as much as 1,500 litres (330 Imp.Gallons/396 US gallons) of tap water.

International