International

Thanks to proposals from the SP, Dutch development aid to Africa is about to be given more substance. Half a million euros will be spent on intensifying the work of the LAND Partnership, which helps governments to create a reliable registration system for land rights.

From 2017 soft drugs – basically, cannabis and its derivatives –should be subject to more intelligent regulation. A parliamentary majority supported the SP’s proposal to this effect. Implementation would put an end to the current bizarre situation under which the open sale of cannabis is tolerated, yet its purchase by vendors – the euphemistically named ‘coffee shops’ – is illegal. SP Member of Parliament Nine Kooiman points out that “as things stand coffee shop operators are forced to do business with criminals. The government must stop creating crooks and instead concentrate its attention on public health and on prevention.”

European cooperation is a fine idea. But a line must be drawn through Brussels’ meddling and the further development of a European superstate, with its total freedom for big capital.

“Despite all of the government’s fine words, and especially those of Labour Party Employment Minister Lodewijk Asscher, temping agencies and gangmasters are being given a free hand to bring hundreds of thousands of eastern European workers here and exploit them by means of pay which amounts to dumping.” So said SP leader Emile Roemer today on national television. The SP wants to see these rogue agencies and employers tackled in as tough a manner as possible and fined accordingly, with permits introduced for the employment of workers from central and eastern European countries.

Metal workers in the maritime industry are angry. Thousands of jobs threaten to disappear because employers en masse prefer to hire cheap labour from abroad.

The European project is under threat of collapse, and from every side. Instead of further enlargement, the EU should be working on alternative forms of cooperation, argues Harry van Bommel.

The SP is urging Sharon Dijksma, Secretary of State for Infrastructure and the Environment, to intervene directly at Ryanair. The low-cost airline scandalously exploits its pilots and cabin personnel. According to SP Member of Parliament Eric Smaling, “a price war is being fought on the backs of the cabin staff. People are getting up to their ears in debt and in some cases working themselves until they are literally ill. We should not be cooperating in this.”

Recent weeks have seen a flood of media coverage of scandals, with former European Commissioners in the leading roles. In order to prevent a repeat of such scandals, Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has adopted a number of new measures. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong isn’t satisfied by Juncker’s actions, however.