Nieuws van de afdeling

11 May 2007

Government still trying to smuggle EU Constitution in by back door

SP Member of Parliament and spokesman on EU affairs Harry van Bommel, says that he "finds it unacceptable that the government wants to leave the major part of the European Constitution intact". Van Bommel was responding to a letter sent to parliament this week by the cabinet, in which it expresses the wish that a number of symbols, such as the European flag and anthem, be removed from the treaty and its name changed, while the essentials remain unaltered. Expressing the view that this was no more than "a straightforward sleight-of-hand trick", Van Bommel described it as "a threat to everyone who less than two years ago participated in the referendum," adding that "the European Constitution is being smuggled in through the back door, disguised in a new dress."

10 May 2007

EP wants health care included in Services Directive

The Socialist Party's Euro-MPs have described themselves as "shocked" by today's vote in the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market on the Report from French social democrat Bernadette Vergnaud on the consequences of the exclusion of health care from the recently approved Directive on Services. An amendment calling on the European Commission to bring health care services under the conditions laid out in the directive was carried by a small majority.

10 May 2007

Success for SP in European Parliament: Public Transport can stay in public hands

The European Parliament today decided that public transport can remain in the hands of public local or regional authorities. This decision would not have been possible without the efforts of SP Euro-MP Eric Meijer, who as long ago as 2000 was appointed 'Rapporteur' on the Commission's proposal. Under the European Parliament's internal rules, for every proposal from the European Commission, which has the right to initiate all legislation, a 'Rapporteur' is appointed who has the job of researching the issue and convening meetings of representatives of all the groups to try to find positions which can win majority support. "I knew that the EU wanted to get rid of publicly owned passenger transport" Erik Meijer explained, "just as they want to see the back of public ownership in postal services and energy supply. From the start I have been determined to find a way to stop these plans from being realised. But that would only be successful if we could mobilise opposition throughout Europe. This is what we managed to do, and it paid off."

9 May 2007

‘No!’ – for the sake of Europe

Contribution to the conference “Left Politics in Europe”, organized by Vasemmistofoorumi / Left Forum in Helsinki, Finland, Wednesday May 9th – by Hans van Heijningen, secretary-general of the SP

2 May 2007

EU Green Paper Legalises Blackmail of Workers

The SP’s Euro-MPs have reacted extremely critically to proposals from the European Commission contained in the Green Paper on the modernisation of labour law currently under consideration by the Parliament. The paper shows the Commission to be a strong advocate of so-called ‘flexicurity’ and in a paper adopted today by the Committee on Gender Equality SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard describes the numerous negative consequences which the Commission's proposals would have for the position of workers in general and women workers in particular.

27 April 2007

Foreign Minister must protest against death penalty for US journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal

SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen is asking Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen to bring pressure to bear on colleagues in the US to intervene to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal. "Mumia' as he is universally known, is an African-American journalist who has spent twenty-five years on Death Row. Through the diplomatic channels of the European Union it is common practice to request that a death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment, and Van Velzen is calling on the minister to enter such a plea in this case.

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