Nieuws van de afdeling

4 February 2010

SP: message from European multinationals 'like a record that's stuck'

On 2nd February the major European multinational corporations, united in the European Round Table of Industrialists published a statement of opinion, For a competitive Europe in 2025. For Dennis de Jong, Chair of the SP group in the European Parliament, this brought back bad memories: in 1985 the same group, then headed by Philips boss Wisse Dekker, brought out a similar report, one which led to the wave of liberalisation and privatisation which has since swept Europe. "A quarter of a century later they're still singing the same song, as if an old-fashioned gramophone record was stuck on a scratch. Once again we have first of all the dogma of the free market, despite the fact that analysts the world over have pronounced neoliberalism dead."

4 February 2010

Scriptural knowledge

by Harry van Bommel

3 February 2010

Emergency hospitals opened for victims of Haitian earthquake

At the request of SP Member of Parliament Remi Poppe, Secretary of State for Defence Jack De Vries is to make the Calamiteiten (Disasters) hospital in Utrecht and the Military Rehabilitation Centre (MRC) in Doorn available to the United Nations. Both institutions will be able to help with the medical treatment of victims of the earthquake in Haiti. “Haiti has a huge problem providing medical care," says Poppe. "The Netherlands must help to alleviate this problem, at least for the most urgent cases.”

2 February 2010

SP: independent enquiry needed as information on fighter purchase turns out false

SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen wants to see an independent enquiry into the reliability of the information sent to MPs about the Joint Strike Fighter, a US-constructed military aircraft which the government is planning to purchase. It became clear last Monday that information originating from the American JSF Project Office (JPO) has turned out to be inaccurate. “Parliament has repeatedly based its judgements on this dubious information," says Van Velzen. "I am determined to get to the bottom of this.”

30 January 2010

SP leader Agnes Kant kicks off election campaign at National Congress

"The cabinet is ready to burst apart," SP leader Agnes Kant told 1200 members assembled this weekend for the SP's 16th National Congress in Rotterdam. "The chance that the Netherlands will go to the polls not once but twice this year is great," Kant said, referring to the possibility that local elections in March will be followed by an early general election later in the year.

29 January 2010

SP: First step towards answerability for EU moneys

National parliaments will be working to bring about improved answerability in the spending of EU moneys. This was the outcome of the interparliamentary conference on the issue which closed today. SP Member of Parliament Farshad Bashir, co-organiser of the conference, is on balance positive in his assessment of the event. “Fifteen times has the European Court of Auditors refused to give its approval to the EU's spending. This is undermining trust in the Union."

International