International

'We won’t allow ourselves to be driven apart. Dutch citizens, men and woman, Muslims and non-Muslims, have shown over the last few days: our answer to division is unity. The cowardice of terror will never defeat the resilience of a free society.’ So said SP leader Emile Roemer during Thursday’s debate on the attacks in Paris. Below you can read the text of Roemer’s speech.

In the Dutch Senate the SP has clashed with the PvdA – the Labour Party - the centre-left component in a government headed by the centre-right VVD, over Labour’s claims that the crisis is now definitely behind us.

The chaos in the Middle East seems complete. ‘Seems’, because things could get even worse now that the Russians have entered the fray. ‘Only an international peace conference with all of the parties involved can save the region.’

SP leader Emile Roemer has reacted with horror to the attacks in Paris. ‘What happened in Paris is beyond comprehension,’ he said. ‘ We mourn the victims, and grieve along with their loved ones, and with all Parisians.’

Without even giving the European Parliament the chance to vote on it, the European Commission can allow trade agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) to enter into force provisionally. The SP views this as unacceptable, and for this reason has issued an urgent appeal to the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to refuse to ratify such agreements until not only the European Parliament but also the national parliaments have had the chance to study their contents.

The European Parliament today adopted a number of proposals aimed at gradual harmonisation of the member states’ electoral procedures. The SP is dead against any and all such proposals, believing that European Union members must remain free to design their own systems. Commenting on these developments, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said, ‘Unfortunately a majority in the EP still don’t get the fact that people aren’t anxious to see still more meddling from Brussels. Electoral systems are pre-eminently a national responsibility. Today’s result is a powergrab by European political parties and has nothing to do with strengthening democracy.’

This year the European Court of Auditors (ECA) has once again declared itself unable to approve the accounts of expenditure from the European Union’s various funds. The grounds for the Auditors’ decision are that the proportion of errors – 4.4% - was far above the acceptable margin of 2%. The ECA is, furthermore, concerned about the member states’ capacity to make effective use of the funds. Commenting on the matter, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says: ‘It’s crazy that new airports have been built simply to get the money spent. In only 50% of projects was an investigation carried out into whether there was any need for the facility. No wonder that only one in three of the airports built with EU money has proved profitable. In every project the need which it meets should be clearly stated, along with the added value gained from EU financing. In particular the question as to whether a project would be realised without such European support is asked far too infrequently. This is a matter of taxpayers’ money. A results-based approach could save a great deal of costs.’

Secretary of State Sharon Dijksma should be looking to make tough agreements on emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, says SP Member of Parliament Eric Smaling. 'Although there may always be debate about the relationship between climate change and human behaviour,’ he adds, ‘it’s crystal clear that the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased enormously over a few decades. Greenhouse gases block the reflection of sunlight, warming the earth.’ On Sunday Smaling joined climate action group Urgenda, whose director is walking to Paris from the Netherlands in stages.

European Commissioner for climate policy Miguel Cañete has allowed himself to be seduced by the oil lobby, the SP says. This view was confirmed in the report “Cooking the Planet” from lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory. The report demonstrates that Commissioner Cañete, along with his colleague Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič, have spoken four times as often with corporate lobbyists as they have with private citizens and social or environmentalist NGOs combined. Moreover, the leading role in this lobby has been taken by the fossil fuel industry, within which the Spanish Commissioner Cañete was formerly employed.