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30 May 2017

SP votes with the people as Senate overturns referendum result on Ukraine treaty

After the voters had given a clear NO to the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, the Senate has followed Parliament's Lower House in voting to accept the controversial treaty and bring it into force. 'The reason for this was the about-face by the centre-right CDA.,' explains SP Senate leader Tiny Kox. While CDA Lower House leader Sybrand Buma and his colleagues voted to reject the treaty, fearing that to vote against would increase still further the public's cynicism about The Hague and Brussels, most of the Christian Democrats in the Senate voted in favour. 'So Premier Mark Rutte has succeeded in turning a clear NO into a dubious YES. The European Commission will be cheering, but the voters won't,' Kox added.

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29 May 2017

Van Raak: No should mean no

According to the daily newspaper Trouw, I am 'polluting' the discussion of the future of the referendum. That's quite a judgment coming from such a measured newspaper, especially when it's in the editorial column. The reason for it was that I have taken on the proposal for a law introducing a binding referendum. This bill was originally proposed by a combination of Green Left, Labour and D66 and passed by both Houses of Parliament, but had to be given another reading because it required an amendment to the Constitution. In the wake of the 'no' vote in the referendum on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, these parties suddenly became opponents of the binding referendum and refused even to put what had been their own bill forward once more. In doing so, they were acting contrary to the Constitution.

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26 May 2017

12,000 protest in Brussels against Trump’s war policies

Foto: SP

On the 25th of may Brussels hosted the NATO summit at which amongst the matters discussed was the raising of NATO member states’ defence budgets. Those present included US  President Donald Trump, who on his arrival in Brussels was welcomed by 12,000 people fed up of his war policies. Among them was SP Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut. “During his election campaign he presented himself as the anti-war candidate, but as with so many election promises this one died the death in the first few months of his presidency,” she said, adding that “one thing is now clear: Trump = war.” 

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23 May 2017

Senate debates Association agreement with Ukraine

Today the Dutch national Senate debated the European Union’s Association Agreement with Ukraine. Below is an edited version of the contribution to the debate of SP Senator Bastiaan van Apeldoorn. The Senate will return to the issue on May 30th when it votes on whether to accept the treaty.  

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21 May 2017

Mineur: People in Sri Lanka deserve more than paper progress

SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur recently visited Sri Lanka. The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean to the south of India. With a population of 22 million, it relies heavily on its textile and clothing industries, which account for 70% of the country’s exports, with the US as its principle customer and the EU in second place. A war which lasted for years between the Tamil Tigers and the Singhalese-dominated government ended with the Tamil Tigers’ surrender in 2009, but this failed to bring about real peace or equal treatment for Tamil citizens. It was human rights abuses following the surrender which led to suspension by the EU of its special trade relationship with Sri Lanka, known as GSP+. The renewal of GSP+ is being questioned by Sri Lankan textile workers and others who challenge the EU’s claims that workers’ rights have improved.

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20 May 2017

Sadet Karabulut: Stand up to Trump’s war policies

During the US presidential campaign Donald Trump gave the impression that he was the antiwar candidate, especially when set against his opponent, the hawk Hillary Clinton. He attacked, for example, the billions of dollars swallowed by American wars which, in his stated opinion, just led to more terrorism, more dead, more bodies. The US billionaire also stated, in contrast to some other candidates, that war and aggression would not be his first instincts. This was, together with his intention to normalise relations with Russia, one of the few attractive elements of what was otherwise a worrying and regularly even bizarre campaign.

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19 May 2017

Parliament votes to support SP proposal to restrict advertising aimed at children

On the initiative of SP Member of Parliament Peter Kwint, MPs today voted to oppose the European Union to broaden what is allowed in advertising aimed at children. “Brussels wants advertisers to be able to aim their message at children when a programme is on which isn’t specifically for them, but is nevertheless watched by large numbers of children,” Kwint explains. “I don’t know why. The interests of children are far more important than those of the  multinationals who want, for example, to advertise unhealthy junk.” 

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17 May 2017

European Patent Office must respect workers’ rights

Foto: doevos

On 16th May the Dutch Parliament voted in favour of a motion proposed by SP Member Maarten Hijink and the PvdD’s (Party for the Animals’) Esther Ouwehand asking the government to ensure that employees of the European Patent Office (EPO) can take their employers to court in the Netherlands.

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16 May 2017

EU Court rules trade treaties must be approved by member states

Foto: SP

National and regional parliaments must approve free trade treaties before they can definitively enter into force. That is the gist of the position taken by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the highest European Union court, which the European Commission had asked for clarification. What this means is that numerous comprehensive treaties negotiated by the Commission over recent years will now have to be presented to thirty-eight parliaments throughout the EU, giving the member states more power to halt controversial agreements.

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