Nieuws van de afdeling

18 February 2009

Dutch citizen sentenced to thirty years in Iran: did Abdullah Al Mansouri receive a fair trial?

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen must make a statement regarding the plight of the Dutch-Iranian Abdullah Al Mansouri, whose family says that he has been sentenced in Iran to thirty years in prison. “The Dutch government says that it knows nothing about this man's condemnation to a lengthy jail sentence and that is most strange” says SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel. “Our ambassador in Tehran should, if he had taken note of the unanimous urging of Parliament, have followed the trial, attended hearings and informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs about what was occurring. This appears, therefore, not to have happened.”

16 February 2009

New referendum law: 'European treaties must not be excluded'

If there is to be a new and revised law on referenda, it must make it possible to organise a popular vote on any proposed new EU treaties, according to the SP. SP Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak gave the party's views in a discussion of a proposal for a new law on consultative referenda from three MPs. The three represent Parliament's two left of centre parties, the Green Left and Labour, and the centrist D66.

12 February 2009

Van Bommel urges sanctions against Romania and Bulgaria

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is urging Secretary of Stae for European Affairs Frans Timmermans to demand that the European Union impose sanctions on Romania and Bulgaria. Van Bommel was responding to today's revelation that neither country had made significant progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime.

12 February 2009

Van Bommel: Timmermans 'speaks with forked tongue' on European government

Van Bommel in 2005, during the successful campaign against the European Constitution.

12 February 2009

British exclusion of Dutch MP 'a dangerous precedent'

The decision by the British authorities that a right wing member of the Dutch parliament should not be allowed on to United Kingdom territory sets a dangerous precedent. SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer has raised the exclusion from the UK of Geert Wilders, founder and leader of the far right Freedom Party, and the precedent which it might set, in a written question to the European Commission. “Can members of and candidates for the European Parliament also be refused entry to EU member states on the grounds of their opinions?” Meijer will ask. He is seeking to know whether other politicians might, for example, be prevented from contributing to debates during the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

11 February 2009

European Commission divided on food from cloned animals

"The European Commission is ignoring the interests of the consumer and ignoring the welfare of animals. Allowing novel foods on to the European market is a result of privileging economic interests, something which unfortunately is likely to persist." So says SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard, who in her capacity as Rapporteur on the issue for the European Parliament met this week with the European Commission and the Council of Ministers. Their aim was to try to find a way out of the impasse brought about by a difference of opinion between the three institutions over a proposed EU Regulation on novel foods. Liotard wants to see meat from cloned animals immediately banned for human consumption, in order to protect both human health and the wellbeing of farm animals.

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