Nieuws van de afdeling

14 February 2008

Taxpayer Should Not Have to Fork Out for Fiasco of Galileo's Wasted Billions

The huge increase in costs of the European Union's Galileo project should not be passed on to the taxpayer, according to SP Member of Parliament and transport spokesman Emile Roemer. Roemer was responding to revelations in the German Magazine Der Spiegel to the effect that the start up of the European satellite navigation system could cost three times as much as was most recently estimated, amounting in the end to a total of €10 billion. He is asking Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings to explain who is to blame for these costs. "Time after time we've warned about the risks, while all along the project was getting ever more expensive," he says. "But €10 billion is well above even the most pessimistic estimates. This really can't be allowed to go any further."

13 February 2008

New debate to be held on Netherlands' support for attack on Iraq

SP Member of Parliament and foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel will get another opportunity to debate with Premier Jan Peter Balkenende over the war in Iraq. Van Bommel asked for the debate on Tuesday, having found the answers to his questions on a research report into the matter unsatisfactory. The enquiry on which the report was based found that senior American officials lied about the presence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

12 February 2008

Fox and chinchilla fur: SP parliamentary resolution results in import ban

Thanks to a motion put forward by SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen, fox and chinchilla furs will shortly be banned from import into the Netherlands. The motion from the SP's spokeswoman on animal welfare won support from a majority in parliament, obliging the government to act. Describing herself as “delighted with this success”, Van Velzen said: “In the Netherlands the keeping of foxes and chinchillas for fur production will be banned from 1st April, so it is only logical that importing these products should also be forbidden.”

11 February 2008

Public Meeting in English: SP Defence Spokeswoman will speak at Amersfoort gathering of experts on depleted uranium

SP Member of Parliament and defence specialist Krista van Velzen will participate this Thursday in a meeting to address the issue of depleted uranium (DU) in weapons systems. Policy makers insist that the use of this radioactive heavy metal is legitimate, on the grounds that there have as yet been no statistically significant causal links confirmed between exposure to it and health problems. Van Velzen will join a bevy of experts who disagree, insisting that the weight of evidence is now sufficient to justify rapid action.

8 February 2008

Van Bommel: Crisis in NATO a result of war in Afghanistan

Despite denials from Dutch Minister of Defence Eimert van Middelkoop, NATO is in crisis. This is the conclusion reached by SP foreign affairs specialist and Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel in the run-up to the NATO summit in Lithuania, during which American Secretary of State for Defence Robert Gates and NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer are exerting huge pressure on a number of NATO countries to send more soldiers to the south of Afghanistan. “It's obvious that NATO's approach in Afghanistan is simply not working, " said Van Bommel. "The Taliban are growing stronger as a result of the way in which the war is being conducted and of the corruption of the Afghan government under President Karzai, which is losing ever more support amongst the people." Van Bommel argues that the Dutch government must use the summit to put forward demands for a completely different approach.

30 January 2008

Liberalisation of post is step backwards

‬The SP group in the European Parliament voted today against the further liberalisation of the postal market.‭ ‬Explaining the SP's hostility to the move,‭ ‬Euro-MP Erik Meijer said:‭ "‬We fear that both the service and working conditions for postal employees will get worse.‭"‬.

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