Nieuws van de afdeling

9 December 2009

Dennis de Jong: SP is most reliable ally of small business

"Brussels looks too much to the interests of big corporations, despite the fact that nine out of ten workplaces belong to firms classed as 'SMEs', small- and medium-sized enterprises. Real entrepreneurs deserve our support and respect". So says SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong, who today addressed a meeting of members of the executive of Eurocommerce on the subject of 'entrepreneurship and the crisis'. Eurocommerce is the European federation of retail companies, 95% of the members of which are SMEs. De Jong is the first representative of the SP to have spoken at a Eurocommerce meeting.

9 December 2009

SP calls for ban on export of asphalt containing tar

SP Member of Parliament Remi Poppe is demanding that Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer take immediate action to put a stop to the export of asphalt which contains tar. Millions of tons of carcinogenic asphalt have been exported to eastern Europe during the last eighteen months, despite a provision in Dutch law making decontamination of this poisonous asphalt compulsory. The SP discovered the abuse following a tip-off to the party's own 'Environmental Alarm Team'.

9 December 2009

What has possessed Obama?

The majority of people in the Netherlands celebrated when Obama was elected President of the United States. At last an end had come to the neo-conservative regime of George W. Bush, a regime which in addition to inflicting a great deal of domestic misery on the US, was also responsible for starting two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

8 December 2009

Parliament supports SP call for ban on investment in cluster bombs

Investment in cluster munitions by Dutch financial institutions is to be banned. Parliament today supported a motion to that effect proposed by SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen. The motion will be binding on the government. “It's a fantastic success that Parliament, after years of pressure, has had the courage to take this step. Banks and pension funds will no longer be allowed to put money into firms which make cluster bombs."

6 December 2009

A week's diary: a glimpse behind the scenes in Brussels

It's still not 1st January, but why wait until the New Year when you can carry out your good resolutions right away? So today I'm going to give you the first instalment of a weekly account of what goes on in the European Parliament group, a glimpse behind the scenes in Brussels.

5 December 2009

Kartika Liotard speaks at United Left Climate Conference in Athens

On Thursday SP Member of the European Parliament Kartika Liotard was in Athens to speak at a conference entitled "Positions of the Left for a binding and fair global agreement on climate change". The conference was organised by the United Left, the European Parliamentary group to which the SP is affiliated. Liotard used her speech in Athens to argue that “it is not the interests of big corporations in the industrialised countries but the interests that we all share in a sustainable future which should should carry most weight at the climate conference in Copenhagen.”

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