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31 January 2017

Halt the Brussels revolving door

Foto: SP

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.’

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27 January 2017

SP co-signs Climate Law initiative

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%.

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27 January 2017

It’s our money

Why do multinationals reap the benefits of our country’s infrastructure and services yet contribute almost nothing to the cost of them? Why do workers and the self-employed duly pay up, while major corporations don’t? Is my money in the bank truly secure? Why the financial world must be transformed and how a start could be made on this.

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25 January 2017

‘Killing the Referendum’

The result of last year’s consultative referendum was clear: 61% of those voting said ‘no’. That ‘no’ was, just before Christmas, in no time at all bent out of shape by a majority in Parliament, somehow becoming a ‘yes’.

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24 January 2017

SP launches ‘People’s Resolution’ on controversial CETA

Foto: SP

Following the disappointing vote by at the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, the SP is launching a ‘People’s Resolution’ on the controversial trade treaty with Canada. The negotiation process has not been transparent, the proposal is not ready for a decision to be taken, and the treaty sacrifices important achievements in exchange for uncertain promises. The SP wants to offer the peoples of Europe time and space to respond.

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23 January 2017

Large-scale unregulated labour migration puts pressure on wages

The opening of the borders to central and eastern European (CEE) workers just a decade ago has led to labour market dislocation in the countries from which people have been attracted and repression, exploitation and underpayment in the Netherlands. The SP wants to see rogue temping agencies banned and work permits introduced for workers from CEE countries.

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19 January 2017

SP Senator Kox: Foreign Minister Must Follow Words with Deeds on Israeli Settlements

SP Senator Tiny Kox, who has visited both Israel and Palestine on several occasions on behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, says he is in full agreement with Foreign Minister Bert Koenders who on Sunday stated that in his view the two-state solution will cease to be viable should Israel continue to build illegal settlements on Palestinian territory. The SP’s own national Congress on Saturday, called to prepare for March 15th’s general election, passed a resolution, initiated by Kox, calling on the Dutch government to recognise the Palestinian State. “I agree with the minister’s words,” says Kox, “but it’s now up to him to follow up his words with deeds.”

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17 January 2017

XXII SP Congress: Roemer kicks off election campaign with call for a progressive pact

Foto: SP

On Saturday 14th January more than a thousand SP members gathered in Tilburg for the party’s twenty-second congress. On the same day, in an interview with national daily Algemeen Dagblad (AD), party leader Emile Roemer called for a pact between progressive parties and ruled out going into any ruling coalition with the VVD, the right-wing element in the present two-party government. Roemer told AD that “in saying this I am giving you a guarantee that we will not help the right to form a majority”. His aim is to persuade other parties to join him in isolating the VVD, which unlike its Labour Party coalition partner is performing respectably in the polls. “When people vote for a left party they expect left policies,” he said.

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11 January 2017

Arnold Merkies and Ronald van Raak: Dijsselbloem’s argument is far from credible

Labour Party Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem has recently been arguing in favour of higher taxes on corporations. SP Members of Parliament Arnold Merkies and Ronald van Raak observe that in practice he is doing something quite different.

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