Nieuws van de afdeling

22 January 2019

EU should back off, not chastise

For fully two-and-a-half years a cloud of uncertainty has hung over the approaching Brexit. A hopelessly divided Conservative Party and the inability of the government and opposition to work together have led to over two years of chaotic and extremely contradictory messages regarding Brexit.

31 December 2018

State secrets have just become less secret

Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok is in deep trouble as a result of the leaking of state secrets concerning supplies to controversial militias in Syria. The blunder has demonstrated how fatal it can be if crucial information is marked 'secret' in a one-sided process. A committee chaired by SP Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak will give his parliamentary colleagues more of a say over what is and is not a state secret.

29 December 2018

Climate policy must reward households

Last week saw the presentation of the Climate Accord. The SP isn't happy with the result. We want to leave a clean earth to our children, but that can only be achieved if the major polluters are tackled. This government instead repeatedly takes the side of the multinationals rather than the people. It's unacceptable that energy bills continue to rise while big polluters such as Shell are protected. We want to see lower energy bills and we want to see major corporations paying their fair share.

29 December 2018

Climate justice: What precisely is involved?

Climate accord, climate law, climate deniers, rising energy bills. Who can make sense of it all? And why does the SP emphasise the importance of climate justice? Below, we outline our position.

12 December 2018

Kox: The fight against terrorism and the defence of human rights are complementary

SP Senator Tiny Kox, a frequent visitor to Strasbourg, reacts to the gunning down of innocent citizens in the city.

I have just expressed my condolences to the families of the people of Strasbourg who were killed or wounded in last night's terrorist attack. As a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I have paid many visits to the city in which the Assembly has its main seat and where it holds its plenary meetings. This week I am in another French city in which the Council of Europe frequently meets, Paris, but the whole country has of course been plunged into shock by the latest horror.

11 December 2018

SP Senator Kox welcomes Council of Europe decision to restore Russian parliamentarians voting rights

Tiny Kox, a member of the Dutch Senate and chair of the United Left Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), was present in Paris on 10th December for a meeting of the Assembly's Committee on Rules of Procedure. The meeting took the decision to end the suspension of Russia's voting rights in the Council of Europe, a suspension instituted in response to the country's illegal annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Beyond that, the Committee ruled that in future no country's members of the Parliamentary Assembly may be deprived of their right to vote. In response to the suspension, Russia's parliamentarians decided to terminate their participation in PACE until their full rights were restored. They will now be entitled to return to play a full role in the body's deliberations and decision-making.

International