International

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."

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.