Nieuws van de afdeling

23 April 2008

Resolution of Macedonia dispute closer as MEPs back SP proposal

‬The European Parliament today voted by a large majority to back SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer's report on Macedonia.‭ ‬Meijer acts as the European Parliament's rapporteur on the country,‭ ‬which has ambitions to join the EU.‭ ‬But a dispute with neighbours Greece over the former Yugoslav republic's name has to date prevented the application process from progressing.‭

22 April 2008

European cooperation is a must – but it must be the right kind

European cooperation is a must – but it must be the right kind of cooperation. The government should stand with its citizens, not against them, as is the case in the Netherlands. This was the message that SP Senator Paul Peters brought to the government in the Senate today. Labour Party Secretary of State for Europe Frans Timmermans wasn't all that pleased with this, accusing the SP of spreading "conspiracy theories".

22 April 2008

The Uruzgan Effect

This week saw the parliamentary debate on progress in Afghanistan. Or, to put it more accurately, retrogression in that country. According to reports from the UN and other organisations, 2007 was the least safe year for Afghanistan since 2001, and 2008 threatens to be still worse. The production of drugs in 2007 broke world records. With scores like these, you have to ask what we're actually doing there.

18 April 2008

International trade in waste harms environment

SP member of Parliament Remi Poppe says that he finds the decision by Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer to allow Dutch reprocessing facilities to burn Italian waste "impossible to understand" when there is so little capacity to reprocess waste originating in the Netherlands itself. “Because the Italians are offering a higher price for incineration of waste, Dutch waste will end up in landfill. The environment is the loser and the minister is doing nothing about it," said Poppe during this week's debate on the issue.

18 April 2008

Not for the first time, SP Senators demand openness on Iraq

On Tuesday the SP made the latest of its many attempts to force the government into the open over the Netherlands' support for the war in Iraq. SP Senator Arjan Vliegenthart, together with fellow opposition senators from the centrist party D66 and the Green Left, tabled thirty-nine questions concerning the government's decision-making process in relation to the war. "Unless we can reconstruct that process we will not be able to draw an lessons from what happened," said Senator Vliegenthart. "That would represent a risk for the future."

18 April 2008

Joint Strike Fighter: Taxpayers forced to stump up twice

SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen says she is "astonished" by the refusal by a number of corporations to return part of the proceeds from the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to the state. This not only breaks agreements made in the past, but it is essential that the industry as a single bloc takes responsibility for repayment of the state's mega-investment. "The firms are evidently happy to trade under the motto 'profits for us, losses for you'," says Van Velzen, defence spokeswoman for the SP. "The burden has now for the most part to be borne by the taxpayers, who still haven't seen any sign of this ridiculously expensive fighter plane."

International