International

SP Member of Parliament and foreign affairs specialist Sadet Karabulut is demanding a thorough enquiry into how it is possible that Dutch support for rebel groups in Syria has gone directly to Jihadists and human rights abusers. “Dutch support for extremist rebel groups in Syria is completely unacceptable,” she says. “The Syrian president Assad must be driven off the political stage, so western powers have joined Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar in supporting radical Islamist militias. Yet while millions in taxpayers' money has gone to Jihadists, Assad sits ever more firmly in the saddle and the war in Syria has been prolonged. That's not only disastrous for Syrians, but means that peace has been shoved further out of sight. The SP urges the end of this permanent war, so an enquiry which turns over every stone is crucial and it's vital that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is completely open about its findings.”

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has taken a close look into the appointment of Martin Selmayr and concluded that there have been four counts of maladministration. 'These judgments confirm what the European Parliament itself decided in July, that the Juncker Commission acted incorrectly in the appointment of Selmayr,' says SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong. 'So it's of the greatest importance that the discussion about political appointments in the European institutions is accorded the highest priority. The most recent proposals from Commissioner Günther Oettinger are in danger of being quickly hidden away behind closed doors. We mustn't let that happen.'

As Parliament returned from recess this week, SP leader Lilian Marijnissen marked the occasion with a speech to the think-tank The Machiavelli Foundation, based like the national legislature in The Hague. People, she said, want a coherent account of what is going on “in our country”. And quite rightly.

In July SP Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut paid a working visit to Palestine and Israel. What she witnessed there was a completely unsustainable situation in which Israel is continuing to block the Palestinians' right to self-determination. “What I heard and encountered shocked me,” she said. “But at the same time it has also given me a great deal of energy to continue what the SP has been doing for many years and tackle the core of this conflict: the perpetual occupation, the blockade of Gaza, and the extension of illegal settlements.”

If the EU gets its way, banks in the Netherlands and other member states will shortly be obliged to give multinationals access to your bank account, allowing them to see everything you've bought as well as when and where the transactions took place. Massive firms such as Google and Facebook can hardly wait. They already know what you've been looking for on line, your tastes, who your friends are and any events you've booked for. Soon they'll know also what stuff you're buying anywhere and everywhere, what shops you're buying it in and the exact time of your purchase.  So we should no longer be surprised if Facebook shows us ads for diet programmes because we've been buying more fastfood. In addition to all that, they'll soon know how high your energy bills are and when you're salary is due.

This summer countless holidaymakers will go by coach to their chosen resorts. But the coach drivers who take them have less attractive prospects lying in wait. Just as with freight traffic, the European Union wants to open the gates to drivers from eastern European countries while at the same time extending permitted working hours. But there remains some hope.

Ten years ago this week Russian troops entered South Ossetia in response to Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili's decision to send his army to attack the region which, though officially still Georgian territory de jure, had seceded de facto seventeen years earlier, in 1991. The attack had been launched the day before the Russian response, which occurred on 8th August.

Just over 73 years ago, on 6th August 1945 – so within the memory of the very oldest people still alive - the Japanese city of Hiroshima was virtually wiped from the face of the Earth by a single nuclear bomb. In the seven decades which have passed since that historic event, the world is replete with bombs which make those dropped on Hiroshima and, three days later, on Nagasaki, look like fire-crackers. We should remember, however, that even these relatively small bombs were terrifyingly destructive weapons. Many people died instantly, but those casualty figures were doubled within a few months, so that the number of deaths from the bombings' acute effects may have been well over 200,000, with even the lowest estimates reaching two-thirds of that figure. Lingering radiation sickness would kill many more as the years went by. SP Senator Tiny Kox, who is also a member of the Dutch delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, wants to ensure that these weapons of mass destruction will never be used again. “I want to see the government sign up to the international campaign to ban nuclear arms,” he says.

On Wednesday the European Ombudsman ruled in favour of SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong's request for access to the EU Council's legal advice in relation to a transparency register. Explaining his request, De Jong said: “As long as three years ago I lodged a request with the Council for access to the full advice given by the Legal Services on the question of possible participation by the Council in the transparency register. The Council has repeatedly refused to grant this, but not only did the Ombudsman rule in my favour on every point, but has also ensured that the Council has given me access to the advice, uncensored. The ruling confirms that documents in the framework of an inter-institutional agreement between Council, Commission and Parliament are comparable to legislative documents. Earlier this year the European Court of Justice ruled that important documents must be publicly available, which will at last give member states' citizens more of an insight into how decisions are taken in Brussels and means that governments can no longer hide behind a veil of secrecy.”