Nieuws van de afdeling

28 May 2008

A plea to the Irish People: Vote No!

Three years ago, an overwhelming majority of the electorates of two of the European Community's founding member states voted to reject the European Constitutional Treaty. In France and the Netherlands, despite solid backing from mainstream political parties and organisations representing both sides of industry, this latest step in the top-down integration of Europe failed to win support. The only democratic course would have been to consign it to history and, after widespread consultation, present the peoples of Europe with a real alternative vision of the Union of our nations.

27 May 2008

Chancellor Merkel and NATO chief De Hoop Scheffer: ‘parliaments should debate NATO reform’

The parliaments of NATO's member states should be involved in discussion of NATO's new strategic concept. The existing 'strategic concept' was adopted in 1999 and is considered outdated. Speaking at this week's meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Berlin, General Secretary Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel both expressed the view that NATO must work with countries outside the alliance and with other international organisations in a global security structure. SP Senate leader Tiny Kox, who together with SP colleague Senator Arjan Vliegenthart is a member of the Netherlands' delegation, responded.

26 May 2008

Last chance for referendum on EU treaty

Tomorrow and Thursday will see the debate over the proposal from the SP and other parliamentary groups for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty – the successor to the European Constitution rejected three years ago by Dutch and French voters.

26 May 2008

Berlin refuses to say Yes to Lisbon Treaty

The refusal of the German federal state of Berlin to vote in favour of the European reform treaty – the Lisbon Treaty – sends a message to voters in the Netherlands and France who three years ago rejected the - to all intents and purposes identical - European Constitution. Yet their governments nevertheless chose to approve the new treaty, said Oskar Lafontaine in an address this weekend delivered in Cottbus at the congress of his party, Die Linke (The Left).

24 May 2008

Brussels must consult with coach drivers over safety rules

“It is annoying for coach drivers to be subjected to limitations on what they can and cannot do. If the job is to remain attractive then there must be room for a certain amount of trust in a driver's capacity to exercise his or her own judgement. But it's just as bad for the European Commission to put an end to measures designed to protect drivers without any consultation with their unions.”

23 May 2008

Government given free hand to reverse policies on public transport

After several years of uncertainty Secretary of State for Transport Tineke Huizinga today admitted that EU law does not oblige member state governments to put public transport services out to competitive tender. SP Member of Parliament and transport spokesman Emile Roemer, responding to Huizinga's announcement, said: “Putting bus transport out to tender is a Dutch idea, and so one which we can reverse - starting with the biggest cities, which maintain their own transport services, and moving on to the rest of the Netherlands, where we can put things back to some sort of order."

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