International

“It’s unfair that households rather than polluting corporations are footing the bill for the climate problem,” says SP Member of Parliament in response to new figures published by the Netherlands’ Central Statistical Bureau (CBS). The figures demonstrate that of the more than €25 billion which the government received in climate taxes in 2016, two-thirds was paid by domestic users. “Of course a great deal of money has to be invested in the climate policy,” Beckerman adds, “but that must be done fairly. The corporations that cause the greatest damage to the climate are contributing relatively little, while households which are far less polluting pay a great deal more. This will result in all the will to tackle the climate problem being frittered away.”

Last week SP Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut and National Secretary Hans van Heijningen paid a three-day working visit to Morocco. “People have been taking to the streets for almost a year now in Morocco,” explained Karabulut. “They want a fairer distribution of wealth in the country and are demanding jobs, health care, education and an end to corruption and impunity. Young and old and, for the first time, thousands of women are getting out on to the streets and calling for a better future. Many Dutch Moroccans feel involved in this protest movement and have organised solidarity actions in the Netherlands in recent months. The SP is in complete solidarity with this people’s movement.”

A special committee of the Netherlands Parliament has been investigating tax evasion by wealthy Dutch people and the constructions which enable moneys to be passed through our country. SP Member of Parliament Renske Leijten was a member of the special committee and expresses the view that, in addition to stricter regulations and improved surveillance, what’s needed is a fundamental discussion of the country’s system of taxation. Below, she speaks to Rob Janssen.

On Wednesday I received an answer from the government to eleven questions concerning the arrest of the head of Amnesty International and nine other human rights activists in Turkey. The government condemns the arrests and is currently preparing a common response with the rest of the European Union. In the recent past, on the SP’s initiative, the government has argued in favour of suspending Turkey’s ‘pre-accession aid’, the EU’s contribution to the country as it prepares itself for eventual membership. They are now repeating this demand, so it’s both striking and disappointing that the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs is not demanding the immediate release of these prisoners.

Laurens Ivens of the Socialist Party, executive member of the city council responsible for housing policy, has brokered a far-reaching affordable housing deal in Amsterdam. The deal breaks fundamentally with former neoliberal housing policies in which 70% of the Amsterdam homes are allocated to the free market. With this radical turn the City Council of Amsterdam is striving to put an end to the alarming boom in soaring commercial rents and explosively rising mortgages for home owners. 

Parliament had invited Belgian nuclear regulator FANC to come to The Hague to talk the accumulation of problems at the nuclear power stations at Doel and Tihange. This invitation was ignored, however, something of an insult to the Dutch Parliament. Not only the Netherlands but also Germany and Luxembourg are anxious to see neighbouring Belgium close these reactors because a disaster could have extremely serious consequences for people living in the region. Belgium refuses to listen, so it’s time to step up the pressure. 

78% of Dutch truck drivers expect competition from foreign drivers to intensify as a result of newly announced EU regulations, according to SP research which involved questioning 1,300 drivers. Last Saturday the European Parliament groups of the SP and the PvdA (Dutch Labour Party) organised a meeting with the drivers in response to the new rules. Dennis de Jong explained that with these new rules “the European Commission is making it even easier for firms to hire drivers from eastern Europe on starvation wages to do work previously done by Dutch drivers. We can’t accept that and we’ll be fighting in both the Dutch and European Parliaments in every possible way to get it off the agenda.”

Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction, and they’re highly dangerous. Destruction of people, animals and the environment is a constant menace. The Dutch government must, if it is concerned about our security, take the lead in bringing about a world free of nuclear arms. It can do this by signing the United Nations treaty banning them that was concluded last week. This would not only establish a clear norm for nuclear armed states, it would also correspond to the wishes of the 122 countries which have already signed up.

The SP is completely opposed to the trade treaty with Japan presented today by the European Commission. SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur sees it as ‘an undermining of democracy from here to Tokyo’, and as a threat to workers’ rights, regulations designed to protect the climate and the environment, and democratic and transparent decision-making.