Nieuws van de afdeling

21 February 2008

Van Bommel: Russian criticisms of Kosovo policy and NATO rocket shield are correct

Hard-hitting criticism from Russian President Vladimir Putin, both on the subject of Kosovo and on the proposed NATO rocket shield, is correct, said SP Member of Parliament and foreign affairs specialist Harry van Bommel in a lecture given at the University of Moscow as part of a hearing for students and teachers of Dutch. Van Bommel was in Russia as part of a Dutch parliamentary delegation which was visiting the country this week. After Moscow, the delegation will go on to the town of Perm.

20 February 2008

European Parliament Votes for EU Constitution, SP Votes Against

Today the European Parliament voted in favour of the new and renamed European Constitution, which the Dutch government says must not be called a “European Constitution” at all, but a “reform treaty”. The SP in the European Parliament joined colleagues from the United European Left (GUE-NGL) group in voting against, of course. As SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer explained, “The difference between this and the Constitutional Treaty roundly rejected by the Dutch people in 2005 is negligible. Our objections to it therefore remain for the most part unchanged.” The SP also participated in a demonstrated before the vote was taken, calling for a new referendum to be held by every member state.

19 February 2008

Stop use of poor of developing countries as guinea pigs for western market

The Netherlands should do more to encourage research into medicines for developing countries, while an end should be called to research in developing countries aimed at the western market. This was the response of two SP Members of Parliament – Agnes Kant, SP spokeswoman on health care, and Ewout Irrgang, the party's spokesman on development issues – to a report from two Dutch organisations, international health NGO Wemos and multinational corporation watchdog Somo. The report shows a growing trend for clinical medical trials in poor countries. "Developing countries are used increasingly by the pharmaceutical industry as a test laboratory with poor people as guinea pigs," Kant observes. "Meanwhile in the west we are doing far too little to develop the means to help people there. This is morally reprehensible.

18 February 2008

SP not alone in its scepticism as NATO sets to work on new strategic concept

NATO must have a new Strategic Concept, according to Jamie Shea, personal advisor to Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who spoke at this weekend's meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. ‘The world is changing and so NATO must change too,' Shea said. Shea wants a vision of NATO's future to be under construction by next year, which marks the organisation's 60th anniversary, so that the heads of government of the member states can put their signatures to it in 2010. The SP, represented in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly by, amongst others, its leader in the Dutch Senate, Tiny Kox, sees things rather differently.

17 February 2008

European United Left opposes Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence

The chairmen of the two European United Left political groups – in the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) – in both of which the SP participates, have condemned the decision of the Kosovo provincial government to issue a unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia.

14 February 2008

Start of Natura2000 important for nature conservation

Dutch Parliament yesterday agreed to the establishment of Natura2000, a plan for the preservation and coordination of European conservation areas. A similar scheme has been operating in the Netherlands for some time, and SP Member of Parliament and spokesman on nature conservation Hugo Polderman said that he was delighted by this step in the direction of biodiversity conservation. "In the last century we have lost more than 50% of our wild animals and plant species," he said. "It is of the greatest importance that we combat further depredation in order to preserve something of our natural riches in the Netherlands and Europe."

International