Nieuws van de afdeling

28 September 2017

The political enthusiasm of Spain’s Podemos

Foto: Nynke Vissia

Issuing from the Spanish protest movement 15M, the newly-founded left party Podemos, won – “to their own amazement” – five seats in the European Parliament and 20% of the votes in the Spanish general election. Researcher and writer Frans Bieckmann, founder of the progressive thinktank The Broker, says that “Podemos breaks with neoliberalism’s groupthink. They want to determine the rules of the game themselves.” Below Bieckmann answers question from SP monthly Tribune.

27 September 2017

European Commission 'is shooting itself in the foot' with new asylum proposals

The European Commission today presented its new proposals for a 'more effective and fairer EU policy' on asylum and migration. According to SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong, the various different plans work against each other. “On the one hand they're at last making efforts to develop a more effective and humane returns policy, something that's essential for the maintenance of sufficient popular support for the reception of refugees in their neighbourhoods. There's also more going to be invested in resettlement in the refugees' own regions and in development in Africa,” said De Jong. “But at the same time the Commission is opening the door wide to economic migrants – this serves the interests of no-one except employers looking for cheap labour. With these proposals the Commission is shooting itself in the foot.”

25 September 2017

Kox: “Convention-based system interesting alternative to current European Union”

SP Senate Leader Tiny Kox, who also serves as leader of the United Left Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), sees the Council of Europe’s convention-based system as an alternative to what he describes as the European Union’s ‘one-size–fits all’ approach. Apparently, colleagues across the political spectrum in PACE feel the same: last week they voted unanimously to support Senator Kox’s proposal to put the evaluation of the Council of Europe’s unique system high on the agenda of the coming summit of heads of state and government. “The political leaders from the forty-seven member states need to consider whether they agree with my report when I say that the convention system on which the Council of Europe rests remains worthwhile,” says Kox. “If so, then they must invest a great deal more time, effort and resources in the making and implementation of conventions, and in monitoring them once they are in force.”

20 September 2017

Hijink: 'Hold on to jobs and know-how at Tata Steel'

SP Member of Parliament Maarten Hijink is urging the government not to sit by and look on as mass redundancies loom at Tata Steel in Ijmuiden, a town on the mouth of the North Sea Canal in North Holland. Indian parent corporation Tata Steel will shed as many as 2000 jobs as part of a merger agreement with Germany’s state-owned enterprise ThyssenKrupp. Hijink wants to ensure that the jobs and know-how at Tata Steel will remain in the Netherlands.

18 September 2017

Barend Wind: ‘The Netherlands is one of the leaders when it comes to inequalities in housing.’

Since the 1980s the mortgage market in many European countries has been liberalised. In these countries, which include the Netherlands, inequalities of wealth have grown enormously. Below, sociologist Barend Wind talks about the housing policies in other European countries and what the Netherlands can learn from them.

12 September 2017

Commission must act to protect franchise holders

Foto: SP

The European Parliament today voted by an overwhelming majority to adopt a report by SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong on how to tackle abuses in the franchise system. “Franchises are seen principally in the retail trade, but they’re found in many other sectors too,” explained De Jong. “In itself franchising can be a useful formula, but unfortunately a large number of abuses result from the fact that in most cases the franchise-giver is much more powerful than the franchise-holder. To date the European Commission has taken no action in relation to this. This has to change. The European code of conduct for the sector must be tightened up and enforced, and the Commission needs to prepare a list of dishonest trade practices. And competition laws must be adjusted.”

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