Nieuws van de afdeling

26 March 2010

SP: ‘State Auditors should cost Afghanistan intervention'

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel wants the 'Algemene Rekenkamer', the Dutch state's own auditors, to launch an enquiry into the total costs of the Netherlands' military intervention in Afghanistan. Included in these costs, the SP spokesman on foreign affairs says, should be the preparations which began in the spring of 2006 as well as the whole cost of the final withdrawal now under way. Van Bommel sees it as unacceptable that the withdrawal of soldiers and materiél from Afghanistan and the dismantling of the bases in the region of Uruzgan where the Dutch military was active has turned out to cost € 115 million more than the sum reserved to cover it. He is also concerned about plans to extend the military presence on the pretext of organising the withdrawal.

22 March 2010

The consumer is best served by simple symbols on packaging

Political etiquette and food safety

19 March 2010

The trade union movement in Europe

Since the mid-1980s, Brussels has been associated first and foremost with Europe's neoliberal policies. The trade union movement in Europe appears to have been taken in by Brussels' institutions and thus rendered harmless. There is, nevertheless, a great deal which the movement could achieve there.

19 March 2010

Weeklog Kartika Liotard: I saw two polar bears...

2010 is the UN Year of Biodiversity, declared to be such because the wealth of species of to be found in nature is under pressure. Take the polar bear population. There are still some 25,000 left, but by 2050 their numbers will have fallen by two-thirds. Why? Not because it is too warm or too cold for them, but because there are people who hunt them for their pelts, their teeth and their claws. The EU has issued a stiff call for opposition to this: as a MEP I participated in this call with complete conviction, because this sort of hunting is senseless, cruel and unworthy of the dignity either of the animal or of humanity.

19 March 2010

Gays in the army: Defence Minister must make views clear to US senate

SP Members of Parliament Harry van Bommel, party spokesman on foreign affairs, and Krista van Velzen, spokeswoman on defence issues, are anxious to know whether Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop are prepared to distance themselves explicitly from remarks by American General Jack Sheehan. Sheehan asserted in the US Senate that the fall of Srebrenica was brought about in part by the presence of homosexuals in the Dutch army, which was charged with defending the Bosnian town, at the time supposedly a 'safe enclave'.

16 March 2010

When will we finally see an intelligent policy on soft drugs?

On 23rd February the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies (ENCOD) will hold a public hearing in the European Parliament. This seems a desperate attempt from the organisations affiliated to ENCOD to draw attention to the need for a more liberal drugs policy in the EU member states. I heartily support this initiative and will make that clear in my contribution to the hearing. It's high time that the European Commission stopped mindlessly following the hard-liners and instead began for once to listen to what people who have daily contact with drug users have to say.

International