Nieuws van de afdeling

29 January 2009

Council of Europe appeals for Obama to reverse US position and support ICJ

On Monday the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began its first trial, and this should be the occasion for the United States to halt its sabotage of this vital element of the international legal system. This was the call issued from Strasbourg by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where PACE member, SP Senator and United European Left political group chair Tiny Kox expressed the hope that the new American President Barack Obama would follow up his announcement that the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay would be closed and torture renounced by declaring a willingness to cooperate with the ICJ.

28 January 2009

Criminal sanctions for illegal employers?

On 3rd February at its plenary session in Strasbourg the European Parliament will debate the report written by Italian social democrat Claudio Fava on sanctions to be applied to those who employ non-EU citizens who are within the EU illegally.

28 January 2009

Equal treatment for unpaid workers

'Work' is often assumed to mean paid employment. Those who are active in the voluntary sector or whose work is within the household simply don’t count. These people, predominantly women, stand entirely outside legislation protecting 'workers' from discrimination. Will unpaid work continue to go unrecognised?

28 January 2009

SP will not support Kosovo report

The SP will, at next week's Strasbourg plenary session of the European Parliament, vote against the report, by Joost Lagendijks of the Netherlands' Green Left (GroenLinks), on Kosovo and the role played there by the EU.

28 January 2009

Climate Change Report 'a step in the right direction'

On 4th February the European Parliament will discuss the climate policy report from German Christian Democrat Karl-Heinz Florenz, "2050: the future begins today".

27 January 2009

Latest revelations on Iraq: yet another argument for an enquiry

Documents pertaining to the cabinet discussion on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003, revealed today on the Netherlands' leading TV news programme, show that the government's preparations for military intervention reached an advanced stage. SP Foreign Affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel says that he finds it “impossible to understand” why the existence of these preparations was never announced in Parliament. “Together with earlier revelations this proves that all relevant material must be brought into the open and that a parliamentary enquiry is now unavoidable.”

International