International

The trade treaty between the EU and a number of Latin American countries, those which make up the trade association Mercosur, presents a threat to European public health. It cannot be ruled out that more 'salmonella chicken' will end up on the European consumer's plate. For this reason the treaty should be immediately rejected, argues Anne-Marie Mineur, MEP.

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Take a look at the travel advice on the Dutch government's website, and you'll see the same warning repeated at least seven times: don't go to Afghanistan. Armed attacks and incidents happen almost daily, often with police officers or soldiers as their target, but in places where many people gather. However, turn to another section, the one headed 'Official Communication -, Afghanistan', and you can read the policy concerning the return of refugees who have been refused asylum, though only after ninety pages of information on restrictions of human rights. There you will see that forced deportation of refugees to Afghanistan is indeed possible. The absolutely justified advice on travel does not therefore seem to be valid for Afghans themselves. This is, to say the least, most peculiar.

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The European Court of Auditors today presented a Special Report on the effectiveness of the European Commission's activities aimed at tackling radicalisation that leads to terrorism. Commenting on the report, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said: “The Court of Auditors confirms what everyone actually already knows, that talking shops in Brussels won't prevent radicalisation. It demands an approach through work in the neighbourhoods. The most you can do at European level is to draw up agreements to remove texts from the internet that encourage terrorist violence, but beyond that it's mainly a matter of finding out on the ground what is going on in vulnerable neighbourhoods. That's not something that the European Commission can or should do.”

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Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki last week paid an official visit to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The minister is urging the Court, of which Palestine is a member, to investigate whether Israel is guilty of human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories which it occupies. This is a grave request.

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On Friday, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag presented her policy note "Investeren in perspectief", ('Investments in prospect'), in which she sets out her plans for development aid and trade policy. What was striking about this was that Kaag, who has in the past received high praise for her knowledge of her subject as well as her international experience, was obliged to stick within the neoliberal lines laid down by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's 'Rutte III' government.

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SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur is urging the European Council to make the mandates for two far-reaching free trade treaties immediately public. The Council today empowered the European Commission to open negotiations on the free trade treaties with  Australia and New Zealand. The mandate for the negotiations is broad and includes, amongst other things, trade in goods and services, and access to public tenders. Read more

Raisa is a woman in her twenties, well educated, with a good job and the first house of her own. You'd think this would be a sound basis for a fine future, but it turns out that nothing could be further from the truth. Her house has suffered so much damage as a result of the gas extraction practised in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands, where Raisa lives, that it has been declared unsafe and uninhabitable. Then came hope, however. Agencies came up with a plan to make the house safe again. Meanwhile she's living in a lean-to adjacent to it. Then she gets a letter telling her that reinforcement of houses in the region of Groningen which has suffered earthquakes as a result of the gas extraction is to be suspended. And the last shreds of hope which Raisa still placed in the government and the companies responsible for this catastrophe disappeared.

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While highly placed officials in Jerusalem were attending the opening yesterday of the American embassy in the city, the Israeli army was inflicting a bloodbath on the people of the Gaza Strip. According to the latest information, 58 people have been killed and 2,700 wounded, all of them on the Palestinian side.

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The memoranda regarding the abolition of the Netherlands' tax on dividends reveal the government at its worst. In the wake of the clumsy drivel about who knew what and when and who knew about which memoranda and who could or could not remember them, the Dutch people are left with a bewildering textbook example of a shareholders' economy and fraud hidden from sight.

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