Nieuws van de afdeling

23 January 2009

European Union? Tell that to train passengers on the journey between the Netherlands and Brussels

You don't see the Christian Democrat Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings very often in the 'Benelux train", the ordinary, non-High Speed train which runs from Amsterdam to Brussels, calling in at The Hague, the seat of the Dutch government. He knows – and admits – that services on this line are well below standard. Packed, unhealthy, with leaky toilets and overflowing rubbish bins. You pay for a seat but there's a good chance you'll have to stand. Lights and heaters coming away from the walls. The gangways remind you of Tokyo in the rush hour. Tickets you might have to get from automatic machines that don't offer a full range of concessionary fares, especially if you're travelling early, before the booking offices open. And if they are open, you have to pay an extra €3.50 to use them instead of the machines. If you're train is late in the Netherlands – a not uncommon occurrence in itself – you can at least get some money back, but this rule doesn't apply on international services. All of this adds up to a sort of dull ache that has already gone on for far too long.

22 January 2009

Government must not fear the truth

The Senate's disappointment over the government's answers to its hundred or so questions on the Iraq war; the latest revelations in the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad regarding the concealing from the foreign minister of official advice notes which might have borne on the decision to offer the US/UK invasion political support; these could prove the overture to a parliamentary enquiry. The answers were followed by the endorsing by a majority of Senators of calls for just such an enquiry. In parliament's lower house too, support for an enquiry is growing after it was revealed that contradictory advice notes existed in relation to Dutch support for the Anglo-American attack on Iraq. Parliament's changing attitude is emblematic of an ever-broadening consensus that this subject deserves further and closer examination. Herman Wijffels, the senior Christian Democrat who was 'informateur' (principal adviser to the Queen) when the current coalition government was established, along with five former Foreign Ministers, recently announced that they also supported an enquiry into the decision-making process which led to Dutch support for the war.

22 January 2009

Glass mountain grows through market distortion

Following the milk lake and the butter mountain, we are now seeing the glass mountain. British glass is being dumped on the Dutch market and processed at the expense of Dutch products. "Transporting waste for recycling over long distances can't be good for the environment," says SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer.

22 January 2009

Containers mix foodstuffs with chemicals

How can a transport company have used containers to alternate foodstuffs and chemicals without their being competently cleaned in between each transport? SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer wants the European Commission to explain why this happened and how it will be prevented from occurring in the future.

20 January 2009

Ready for Europe

On 4th June elections will be held for the European Parliament. These elections are growing in importance, because Europe is playing an ever greater role, whether you want it to or not. In the 1950s it was a matter of six countries which had made agreements over economic cooperation. In 2009 it's twenty-seven member states, 750 Euro-MPs and a European Commission with countless officials in its employ. Around this circle at least 10,000 lobbyists from corporations and organisations.

19 January 2009

'Press revelations over suppressed memos should be reason enough for Labour to renege on its agreement with coalition partner'

For years now the SP has been demanding an explanation of the Netherlands' political support for the invasion of Iraq. In 2007 the party, together with a number of other organisations, collected 137,000 signatures on a petition demanding a parliamentary enquiry. The PvdA (Labour Party), which had always endorsed calls for an enquiry, allowed itself to be silenced by its coalition partner, the centre-right CDA, and reversed its support. Last weekend the prestigious daily newspaper NRC-Handelsblad published a critical memo from 2003. Written by senior civil servants, the memo was addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs – but it never reached him. It stated that Dutch support for the war did not comply with the demands of international law. Harry van Bommel answers six questions on the affair.

International