International

During the last few days a great deal of attention has been paid to a European Parliament study of the economic damage caused by EU internal border controls. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong finds this open to question. “The EP study hasn't even been published yet and is only expected in mid-April,” he points out. ”There is indeed a presentation in the Internal Market Committee today, but that's based on a provisional analysis which the researchers base in turn primarily on a paper by the Bertelsmann Foundation. That paper has just come out, but is itself to a great extent based on a World Bank study. That's not all that convincing. When you're calculating the negative economic consequences of border controls, what you base this on is of crucial importance: are there, as with toll-gates, applications of modern technology involved? Are there identity checks alone, or are customs and excise controls also performed? This is all extremely unclear and so it would be better to wait for the definitive study carried out by the European Parliament itself? “.

The government in Kiev is no bastion of a free democracy. On the contrary, the present administration was helped into power by violence and is characterised by repression, corruption and chauvinism. Half of the population, which does not believe in the present pro-European and anti-Russian course, has been determinedly pushed aside, while there is a disturbing link between fascist groups and the centre of power in Ukraine.

SP leader Emile Roemer, along with the party’s Senate group leader Tiny Kox and General Secretary Hans van Heijningen, is visiting the refugee camps in Greece. Despite the massive problems with which Greece is faced, the left Syriza government is doing all it can to organise the decent reception of the refugees. On the second day of his visit, Roemer spoke with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

SP leader Emile Roemer, along with the party’s Senate group leader Tiny Kox and General Secretary Hans van Heijningen, is visiting the refugee camps in Greece. Despite the massive problems with which Greece is faced, the left Syriza government is doing all it can to organise the decent reception of the refugees. ‘The Greeks can be proud of themselves and of their government,’ says Roemer. ‘I know of countries in Europe in much better financial and economic condition which could take their example from them.’

On Wednesday I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to examine secret documents relating to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). A closed reading room was set up in the Ministry on 1st February, containing reports of the TTIP negotiations between the EU and the US. In order to gain access I had to sign a declaration agreeing to maintain absolute secrecy, my telephone had to be switched off and I was under the permanent surveillance of a security guard. I am not allowed to communicate anything about the documents to a parliamentary policy adviser who was also there. Because of this sort of puppet show, the TTIP reading room is also known as ‘the darkroom’.

The number of polling booths available to voters in the referendum on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement scheduled for April 6 has been reduced by an average of 10% across different local authorities, according to an investigation by state broadcaster NOS.

The opportunities for tax avoidance offered by the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and other trade treaties represent the umpteenth disaster in a thoroughly disastrous dossier. This was the SP’s response to a report published yesterday by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Global Justice Now. Although countries are adding explicit reservations regarding tax issues to trade treaties to which they are party, it turns out that corporations still see an opportunity to bring and even win arbitration cases in relation to taxation.

Volkskrant editor Bert Lanting is unimpressed by the criticisms of the EU Association Agreement with the Ukraine lodged by Jan Roos of GeenPeil, the group whose initiative led to the referendum on the issue. That’s understandable, in that Roos boasts of never having read the text of the treaty, which is rather silly. But that Lanting himself tells us that there’s nothing wrong with the agreement, when he hasn’t bothered to look at the relevant parliamentary debate, is harder to understand.

The treaty with Ukraine will not benefit the fight against corruption. This struggle in desperately necessary in a country where corruption hasn’t just harmed the system: corruption is the system. That’s why Ukraine has a high score in the corruption index. One Dutch company, the shipbuilder Damen Shipyards, found that out the hard way.