Nieuws van de afdeling

26 February 2017

European Commission attempts to control the Netherlands must stop

This week the European Commission published its national reports, including one on the Netherlands. This is done in the framework of ‘economic governance’, and they’ve got an opinion about everything: the housing market, spending on health care, the labour market, and public investments. Not everything they write is nonsense, but it’s striking how this year’s recommendations are at odds with the policies previously propagated by the Commission. It demonstrates once again that the European Commission is incapable of running member states. Better to leave that task to national governments and parliaments.

23 February 2017

Time we made truck driving attractive again

Foto: SP

On 21st February SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong and Ellen Verhoog, a member of the SP’s European Parliament staff, went on a working visit to lorry drivers to find out why there were so many vacancies in the trade and so little interest in it from young Dutch people.

20 February 2017

Seize the power!

Summary of the SP election manifesto for March 2017

Foto: SP

The Netherlands has more millionaires than ever before, yet more than a million people can't afford to pay the costs of the health care they need. The difference between the big earners at the top and the rest of the population has been deliberately widened by this government. Prime Minister Mark Rutte has taken good care of directors and executives, of the banks and multinationals. In the wake of the crisis this elite is richer than it was before it. Yet for most people, vital services such as affordable care and social security, have only declined. Read more

15 February 2017

European Parliament supports CETA, but last word is for national parliaments

Foto: SP

The European Parliament's vote in support of CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada, was not unexpected but was in the SP's view disappointing. CETA will come into force as early as the beginning of April, but has still to be ratified by the member states.

14 February 2017

SP Euro-MP De Jong demands complete openness on Commission Expert Groups

Foto: SP

The report from SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong on the European Commission's advisory expert groups was today adopted with almost unanimous support (663-16, with 13 abstentions) by the European Parliament. “I'm very pleased with the enormous support for transparency shown by my fellow MEPs,” says De Jong. Referring to the Dutch Commissioner in charge of the portfolio on transparency, he notes that “Frans Timmermans will now have to take his responsibility and ensure that an end is put to the dominant position of major corporations in the Commission's hundreds of expert groups. We saw in the investigation into Dieselgate how harmful it can be when in expert groups like CARS21, the industry dominates and environmental and consumers' organisations hardly get a look in.”

4 February 2017

Understanding why there’s discontent doesn’t mean legitimising discrimination

Our elections are in sight. At the same time we can see in the United States where discrimination and exclusion on the grounds of nationality, religion, sexual preference or gender can lead: to a society in which people are set against each other, while the 1% make off with the booty. It’s high time we set a new course: radical together.

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