Nieuws van de afdeling

5 December 2007

Take the lead in the banning of cluster bombs

This week in Vienna more than a hundred countries will gather to discuss how they can work together to achieve a ban on cluster bombs. A choice moment for the Netherlands to play a leading role in this historic process, argue Krista van Velzen and Huub Oosterhuis. Defence Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop, a member of the Christian Union, must dare to put Biblical ethics into practice.

5 December 2007

SP: Outlaw import of products of child labour

Legislation is needed to make it compulsory for companies to work towards ensuring that children are not employed in the manufacture of their products, argued SP Member of Parliament Sharon Gesthuizen, party spokeswoman on economic affairs, during this week's parliamentary question time.

4 December 2007

Dutch Antilles: Government must tackle tax haven

The Netherlands is planning to write off € 2.5 billion (£1.81bn/$3.7bn) in debts owed by one of the few remnants of the country's imperial past, the islands known as the Dutch Antilles. All very well, argues SP Member of Parliament and spokesman on Antillean affairs Ronald van Raak, but only if the islands enhance their future income by imposing a proper level of taxation.

4 December 2007

EU should take action against use of child labour in India

"Europe should play a more active role in the fight against child labour. Imports from India, for example, of textile products made by children should also be tackled at European level," says SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer. Meijer today put a question to the European Commission following the issuing of an arrest warrant against members of the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Rural India Working Group.

3 December 2007

Van Bommel: Russia still has a long way to go before it can be called a democracy

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel, in Russia as an election observer for the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), spoke this weekend to a number of Russian citizens who voted, against their better judgement, only because they feared that they would be punished should they register an abstention by staying at home. At the same time, while visiting a polling station he was told by local election observers that in a number of cases ballot slips had been photographed. Other OSCE observers also came across clear abuses. "These parliamentary elections have made it clear that a considerable amount remains to be done if Russia wants to be seen as a real democracy," Van Bommel concluded.

30 November 2007

SP Opposes Payment of Subsidies to European Political Parties

The SP's members in the European Parliament voted today against the payment of subsidies to European political parties. The party finds the proposal to increase such subsidies by 85% completely unacceptable, seeing no need for these parties, and certainly not if, as is the case, they are established on the initiative of Brussels. The SP is also opposed to the encouragement of EU-wide campaigns in the European Parliament elections, in place of the national campaigns which are currently the norm.

International