Nieuws van de afdeling

9 July 2008

Afghanistan Tour: Peace will come only through negotiations with Taliban

SP Member of Parliament Farshad Bashir ended his Afghanistan Tour last Tuesday in Groningen. During the last few weeks, in six different towns in the Netherlands, he took part in discussions on the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan with aid organisations, SP Members of Parliament and the general public. “Supporters and opponents of the mission took the floor on each occasion, but they all had one thing in common," says Bashir. "They knew that the mission in Uruzgan is not a reconstruction mission but a military mission, and that peace in Afghanistan will come only through diplomacy, including talks with the Taliban.”

9 July 2008

European Parliament Majority Moves to Muzzle Opposition

A majority in the European Parliament is in favour of reducing the number of political groups. The contribution of small political groups is not considered to be of any value, and those with fewer than twenty-five members will shortly be excluded. The SP itself belongs to a group which is sufficiently large not to have to worry about this, but nevertheless today vehemently opposed getting rid of small political tendencies. The two major parties of the Netherlands' governing coalition, the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the Labour Party (PvdA) showed their worst side in the final vote, imposing their will on the other parties.

8 July 2008

Parliament's yes follows people's no

The Senate voted on Tuesday by a large majority to endorse the Lisbon Treaty, successor to the European Constitution rejected three years ago by the Dutch people. SP Senate leader Tiny Kox drew Premier Jan Peter Balkenende's attention to the contradiction between the parliamentary yes and the popular no of 2005, when two-thirds of the electorate voted against the European Constitution. "The two houses of Parliament form the elected representation of the Dutch people," said Senator Kox, "but the Dutch people feel on this point that they are not represented, That should cause you concern."

7 July 2008

Senate speaks as voters forced to remain silent

Today and tomorrow the Senate will take its definitive decision on the Lisbon Treaty, which replaces the European Constitution rejected in 2005 by almost two-thirds of the Dutch electorate. A promised referendum on the new treaty was whipped out from under the noses of those same voters when Labour leader Wouter Bos, whose party had previously supported it, did a deal during the formation of the present governing coalition with Christian Democrat headman Jan Peter Balkenende.

7 July 2008

Balkenende wants to push 'Lisbon' through the Senate

On 8th July, the last day before the summer recess, the Senate must pronounce judgement on the Treaty of Lisbon, the successor to the European Constitution, killed in action in 2005. Where the government and the lower house of Parliament granted each other three months to sort out the tangle of proposed amendments, protocols and declarations formulated last year in Lisbon, the Senate has been given just three short weeks to come up with a considered verdict. In order to make this possible, the government answered in absolute record time – within three days – two hundred detailed questions from the Senate. On the same day that these answers arrived, the Premier informed the Senate that a comparable number of questions over the Netherlands' involvement in the war in Iraq could be expected to take six (!) months. The Premier's extreme haste in the case of the Lisbon Treaty demonstrates how fearful he is now that doubts are growing all over Europe as to the direction and organisation of the European Union.

6 July 2008

Mini-Treaty for Europe

In eleven months, on 4th June 2009, we will be able to vote in elections for the European Parliament. Everyone now believes that these will be exciting. The first question on everyone's lips is whether we will be able to build on the success of 2006. This would involve winning five seats instead of our present two, which would be sensational. The second question is, just what are these elections about? This is what the SP's manifesto committee gave its attention to yesterday.

International