Nieuws van de afdeling

17 May 2005

Sack Barroso! MEPs propose motion of no confidence in Commission President

The SP delegation in the European Parliament were amongst 77 Euro-MPs who last Friday proposed a motion of no confidence in Commission President Jose Barroso. They accuse Mr Barroso of having taken a holiday on the private yacht of Greek shipping magnate John Latsis. The trip allegedly took place in August, just a month before a shipbuilding firm belonging to Mr Latsis received state aids to the value of € 10,3 miljoen euro.

16 May 2005

‘Return to Sender’: SP calls on voters to send government’s Constitution pamphlet back

The SP is calling on all citizens to return the government's recently distributed pamphlet on the Constitution to the Minister of Foreign Affairs marked “unwanted post – return to sender”. SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel explained: “This is a way in which the public can let its feelings be known regarding the way the government is using taxpayer's money to wage a partisan campaign.” Neither the explanatory pamphlet distributed some time ago by the Independent Referendum Committee, nor the widely available summary known as the “Constitution Paper”, made any attempt to persuade voters to back the proposal, and because of this the cabinet has decided to spend €1.5m of the people's money on a new, extremely one-sided pamphlet. In addition, € 2 m has been earmarked for full-page ads and commercial radio time.

15 May 2005

Desperately Seeking Approval: Yes side shuns reasoned argument while government ignores referendum law

Opposition to the proposed European Constitution is rising in the Netherlands, where the proportion of those intending to vote 'no' has now grown, according to two polls, to 60%, while the only poll which ever gave the Yes camp a lead has now reversed its forecast. The steady increase and growing likelihood of defeat has shocked the right-wing government of Christian Democrats and Liberals, which in response is playing fast-and-loose with the rules governing referenda, while members of the cabinet make increasingly eccentric and outrageous statements about the Constitution's contents.

29 April 2005

European Conservatives attack Dutch euthanasia law

At this week's meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), furious conservative parliamentarians from throughout Europe launched a fierce attack on the Netherlands' euthanasia policy.

28 April 2005

Constitution disrupts European cooperation

The twentry-one European countries which do not belong to the European Union have had no influence whatsoever on the “European” constitution which, in contrast, will have a major influence on their future. And their cooperation with the member states of the EU within the Council of Europe will be seriously disrupted, according to SP Senator Tiny Kox, speaking today in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg.

26 April 2005

Council of Europe delivers hard-hitting judgement against US

Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today delivered an unusually harsh and almost unanimous judgement against the US. The declaration concerned its treatment of prisoners of the war against terrorism.

International