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1 October 2003

Ports Directive unworkable, will lead to more unrest

The compromise between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers over the liberalisation of port services is unworkable, according to SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer. "This plan will lead to still more unrest in European ports," Mr Meijer said.

30 September 2003

Blowing Away the Stink of Corruption

Once again officials of the European Union have been caught with their hands in the taxpayers’ purse. A long-term solution would involve the thorough restructuring of the institutions. In the short-term, we need a Parliamentary Enquiry with powers to subpoena witnesses, argues Dutch Euro-MP Erik Meijer.

26 September 2003

Commentary on the Swedish ‘no’ to the Euro

The Swedish "no" to the replacement of the Kronor by the Euro was hardly unexpected. Euro-scepticism in the Scandinavian countries is widespread, partly because many Nordic people connect the undermining of the social and democratic achievements of the post-war welfare state with the rise of the European superstate, a superstate based on the slogan "more market, less government". Despite the urgent appeal by political and economic leaders, strongly supported by most of the Swedish media and expensive advertising campaigns, a majority of the population was prepared to vote to block the adoption of the euro. "The yes side had the leaders, the media and the money: we had the arguments," was how Gudrun Schymann of the Vänster (Left) Party summed up the events in her country.

22 September 2003

25,000 demonstrate against cuts

Around 25,000 people from throughout the Netherlands gathered in Amsterdam on Saturday to demonstrate against the government’s proposed cuts in social services, welfare and education. The turn-out was more than twice as great as expected by the organisers, the Action Committee "Turn the Tide", and was confirmed by police as accurate.

17 September 2003

Dutch Grocer Tries to Calm Furor Over Pay

NIJMEGEN, the Netherlands, Sept. 17 – Hoping to quell a national outcry over corporate compensation here that has spread to its own supermarkets, the Dutch food retailer Royal Ahold said today that its chairman would resign and that it would overhaul its chief executive’s multimillion-dollar pay package.

16 September 2003

The failure of the WTO summit in Cancún opens up the prospect of social globalisation

The result of the summit was no surprise. During the last week in Cancún I have seen the contradictions between, on the one side, the G21 (the coalition of more developed developing countries) under the leadership of Brazil, and, on the other side, the European Union and United States, grow ever sharper. European Commissioner Pascal Lamy is the person who above all has had to pay for this. By attaching itself, at the Doha negotiating round, to an uncompromising demand for a radical review of farm subsidies, the EU had manoeuvred itself into an impossible position. At Cancún it turned out that the Union did not really want to follow through on this commitment.

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