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21 November 2008

EU residents must do Turkish military service

In Europe, men of Turkish parentage have a problem – conscription. If they don't want to go into the Turkish armed forces, they have to pay from €5.200 to €7.700 euro to be released from duty. Even then they are obliged to go through basic training involving three weeks in Camp Burdur, near Izmir. "If you live in the EU but retain Turkish nationality," points out SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer, "you are forced to do military service in what for you may be an alien culture in an army which, for example, has a record of violence against Kurds."

20 November 2008

SP gives critical support to proposals to improve EU anti-fraud service

The Christian Democrat Ingeborg Gräßle has won the 'provisional' support of SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer (SP) for her report, presented today in the European Parliament, aimed at improving the work of the European Union's anti-fraud service, known by its French acronym OLAF. 'The SP supports this as a first step towards improvement, but not under the illusion that it will solve all of the problems associated with OLAF," Meijer said.

20 November 2008

No further enlargement for NATO and the EU

Last weekend I paid a visit to the NATO parliamentary assembly, held in Valencia. There was fierce debate on the recent war between Russia and Georgia. Neither country is of course a member of NATO, but they attend the parliamentary assembly and even have speaking rights. The war was continued in Valencia by other means, not with weapons but with words, sometimes extremely hard words.

19 November 2008

European Agriculture: 'A small step forward'

The European Parliament today used its plenary session in Strasbourg to debate the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Votes were taken on the issues of direct financial support for farmers, the extension of milk quotas and the proposed abolition of controversial export subsidies. "The SP stands of course for a radical reform of the CAP," said SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard, a member of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee. "The proposals which have won support here are rather thin, but nevertheless a small step in the right direction."

18 November 2008

Ambassador will attend commemoration of Rawagadeh bloodbath

A majority in the Dutch parliament has voted to support the proposal from SP Member of Parliament Harry Van Bommel to send the Dutch ambassador to the commemoration of the massacre in the Indonesian village of Rawagadeh. "I am very pleased that parliament wishes to see the highest representative in Indonesia of the Dutch government pay a visit to the commemoration. This could be the long-awaited beginning of a recognition of the crimes committed by Dutch military forces during the conflict."

18 November 2008

Inland waterways: save small operators, says SP

Old vessels belonging to small firms operating on inland waterways are being threatened with extinction by regulations so exacting they are impossible to meet. "The EU is meddling even in such matters as the width of the beds on board," says SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer, who is urging the European Commission to exempt vessels over thirty years old from the most demanding of the 140 regulations which have been tightened up by the authority governing traffic on the Rhine. "Small firms operating on inland waterways are important in our part of Europe for the movement of goods via a network of small waterways,” Meijer explains. "They do the work of tens of thousands of lorries."

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