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17 December 2007

Support Afghanistan, Stop the War

Under the slogan “Support Afghanistan, Stop the War”, the organisation “Five to Twelve” organised this morning a demonstration in front of the parliament building in The Hague. The action was timed to precede today's parliamentary debate on the prolongation of the Netherlands' military presence in the troubled Afghan province of Uruzgan.

17 December 2007

Paulus Jansen: Weblog Bali

From Monday 10th to Saturday 15th December, SP Member of Parliament Paulus Jansen visited the Climate Conference on the Indonesian island of Bali. During this, the 13th Climate Conference a start was made on reaching agreement on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Dutch state news broadcast corporation NOS asked Jansen to write a daily report of his experiences at the Conference. This is an extract from one or two of his blogs, including the the last, written after his flight home, in which he draws his conclusions as to the success or otherwise of the event.

17 December 2007

Uruzgan is becoming the Netherlands’ Vietnam

Waging war should not be done unless the broad support of the people is assured, argue Harry van Bommel, Mariko Peters and Klaas E. Meijer

12 December 2007

SP: End subsidies to EU wine lake

The SP is supporting a proposal from the European Commission to reduce the level of wine production in Europe. SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard, explaining the party's decision, said: “We are paying €700 million per year just to get rid of wine that nobody wants. At some point this has got to stop."

12 December 2007

Stop enforced privatisation and liberalisation in developing countries

The SP is urging Development Minister Bert Koenders to call the World Bank to account for the pressure it exerts on developing countries to privatise and liberalise their economies. Research has shown that the Bank puts pressure on countries to liberalise their markets and privatise state-owned enterprises, despite recent promises of a change in policy.

12 December 2007

SP supports ban on ‘healthy lollipop’ claims

The European Parliament voted today to approve a change in the rules governing health claims on food products. SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard explained that "Fooling children into thinking that some lollipops are really healthy will no longer – eventually - be allowed. In my view, however, the proposal doesn't go nearly far enough, though it will certainly represent an improvement on the present situation."

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