International

On the basis of today’s report from anticorruption group Transparency International’s report ´Access All Areas - When EU politicians become lobbyists´, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong believes it’s time to see rapid measures taken to put a stop to the revolving jobs door in Brussels and intends to include this in his report on the European Parliament’s accounts. “A third of MEPs and fully half of the Commissioners turn out, at the end of their term of office, to go to work as lobbyists in the Brussels bubble”. This leads to a closed system, where big corporations, but not the general public, are welcome. The rules on cooling off periods and integrity during and after these periods must now, at last, be amended. I get a queasy feeling from fellow Members who claim to be defending the general interest and at the end of their term go straight into working as lobbyists.’

Five parties in the Netherlands’ multi-party Parliament, amongst which the SP, this week signed up to a new Climate Law initiative proposal. The Climate Law makes climate goals legally binding and obliges the government to make a climate plan every five years in which it is made clear how the goals will be reached. In an annual climate budget, the plan will be elaborated in more detail. The law will also set a legally binding target of a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 against a reference date of 1990, and a 95% reduction target by 2050. In that same year, renewable energy’s share must have reached 100%.