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13 September 2007

Verburg breaks word: controls on animal transports will not be strengthened, but weakened

Under pressure from a majority of Members of Parliament, Agriculture Minister Gerda Verburg has withdrawn recently announced measures to counter the horrifying abuses to which farm animals are subjected during transport. The minister had reportedly lost all trust in the sector following revelations of a whole series of abuses, but this evening she opted to withdraw her proposals, leaving the sector itself responsible for monitoring animal welfare. This is despite the fact that those responsible for the transport of farm animals have already demonstrated that they are unwilling to take the structural steps necessary if the problem is to be tackled effectively.

12 September 2007

Council of Europe expresses concern over US rocket shield

Following a proposal from SP Senator Tiny Kox, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will hold an emergency debate on 4th October on the political consequences of President Bush's plan to erect a 'rocket shield' in eastern Europe as a defence against 'rogue states' such as Iran and North Korea.

12 September 2007

Environmental problems don't stop at the border

SP Member of Parliament Remi Poppe is less than impressed by this year's report from the Netherlands' official Environment and Nature Planning Bureau and is determined that next year will see a more honest 'Milieubalans'. Literally the 'environmental balance sheet', the 'Milieubalans' is in practice a report on the state of affairs as regards environmental problems in the Netherlands – and this, Poppe argues, is precisely the problem, that the report, presented on Tuesday, confined its observations to the domestic scene. "The Bureau was only concerned with the improvement of the environment in our own country," said Poppe. "But its solutions aren't solutions at all. They don't solve the problem, they merely move it elsewhere."

10 September 2007

SP Member of Parliament Van Velzen calls for effective controls on transport of cattle

Minister of Agriculture Gerda Verburg has agreed to take checks and controls on the transport of cattle out of the hands of the sector itself. The Christian Democrat (CDA) minister made this pledge in the course of an emergency debate requested by SP Member of Parliament and animal welfare spokeswoman Krista van Velzen. “That's a start, but no reason to rest content," said Van Velzen. “Controls on the transport of live animals must be structurally improved, and not just for a short period when there happens to be a hue-and-cry about the issue. And the legislation itself needs to be stiffened up."

3 September 2007

250,000 'Troops Out' Leaflets Call for End to Mission in Uruzgan

The Dutch mission in the Afghan province of Uruzgan must not be extended – that is the message of a leaflet distributed today by the 'Troops Out of Afghanistan' Committee. The Committee includes the SP, the Green Left party, the Stop the War coalition and the Platform against the New War. The leaflet, which takes the form of a newspaper presenting the Committee's arguments against the prolongation of the mission, has a print run of 250,000, a huge number for a country whose population is just under 16.5 million. SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel explained that the paper "puts the arguments behind the wish of the majority of the population that there should be no prolongation of the mission in Uruzgan. We can and must help the Afghan people, but in another way.'

10 August 2007

Both Wilders and Islamist extremists have lost all sense of reality

Right wing MP Geert Wilders' intolerance, as much as Islamic extremism, represents a threat to democratic values, argues SP leader Jan Marijnissen.

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