Nieuws van de afdeling

16 December 2005

IMF tinkers with G8 debt deal

SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang has expressed concern that the IMF executive is about to take a decision, at a meeting scheduled for next Wednesday, to defer the G8's agreed debt forgiveness for six of the eighteen countries affected by the deal. Debts would not be cancelled until the countries in question – Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Senegal – had taken poorly-specified “remedial actions”.

14 December 2005

European Data Retention: terror against terrorism

SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer today took part in the debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg over data retention. In Mr Meijer's view, proposals on this issue are poorly thought-out, unnecessary and demagogic.

10 December 2005

Van Velzen: nuclear chief's Peace Prize ‘curious’

That Mohammed El-Baradei has today received the Nobel Prize for Peace can, according to SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen, at the very least be called curious. "It is certainly to be welcomed that he, as head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Authority, repeatedly called for a complete ban on nuclear weapons. Yet the same organisation has, in addition to opposing nuclear armaments, another central task, the promotion of nuclear energy, which creates its own problems," Ms Van Velzen commented.

8 December 2005

Give developing countries room for social policy

The SP believes that international donors are allowing developing countries too little space to build effective social policies, seriously compromising attempts to achieve the millennium goals by 2015.

7 December 2005

European Union: do better by doing less

After the tidal wave of meddling evident since Maastricht, “Do better by doing less” must henceforth be the guiding principle of European integration. The direction must also change, moving away from the present megalomania and neoliberalism which have forced member states to sell off their public sectors. That means no Services Directive, no Port Services Directive, and no more interference in housing, education and health care. If the government does not bring these elements into a new vision of the European Union, they will again have to answer to the voters at the next election as they did in the referendum.

29 November 2005

SP parliamentary motion urges lower charges for transfer of money to developing countries

The Dutch National Parliament's main legislative chamber today backed a joint SP-Christian Democrat motion which could lead to a lowering of costs for immigrants transferring funds to their countries of origin. The motion was proposed by SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel. A recent World Bank study showed that last year developing countries received $167bn dollars from migrant workers sending money to their families. Charges imposed on such payments should be set as low as possible.

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