International

The NGO "Parliamentarians for Global Action" (PGA) interviewed Dutch MP Harry van Bommel about the ratification of the Rome Statute by Armenia. Van Bommel was awarded with the “PGA Member of the month May 2015” title.

The free trade treaty known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States represents the next step in the neoliberal project, according to Ewald Engelen, who stated his view during a debate on the treaty in De Moed, the SP’s headquarters in Amersfoort. Engelen was one of around a hundred interested people present.

Nepal has recently been hit by powerful earthquakes which have claimed many thousands of victims. The approaching rainy season will make the risk of landslides so great that people must be rapidly rehoused. Commenting on the situation, SP Member of Parliament Eric Smaling argues that ‘people living in unstable regions in Nepal must be evacuated as quickly as possible to areas where there is less danger. Dutch Development Minister Lilianne  Ploumen must join the government of Nepal and the international community in working hard for this.’ 

From 11th to 14th June the 63rd Bilderberg Conference is to be held in Innsbruck in Austria. This private gathering is attended by the world’s most influential people: heads of government, bankers, industrialists, top scientists and researchers, and editors-in-chief of authoritative media outlets. Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem are amongst those taking part. It is totally wrong that this meeting receives no attention from the media.

Scarcely a day before the scheduled debate on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, European Parliament president Martin Schulz has removed both the debate and the planned vote to establish the Parliament’s opinion from the agenda of the plenary, sending the report back to the Committee on International Trade, a move agreed by committee chair Bernd Lange. Schulz cited the large number of proposed amendments as the reason for his decision, but the SP’s European Parliament team have their doubts.

8 June 2015 At today’s press conference in Ankara, the international observers’ team from the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) presented its initial findings regarding Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

In the absence of a political solution, the military mission in Iraq is doomed to fail, according to SP Member of Parliament Jasper van Dijk in response to what he observed on his two-day visit to the Dutch armed forces in Iraq and Jordan. ‘The Netherlands’ efforts offer no solution to the enormous problems in Iraq,’ he insists. ‘This must first and foremost address the structural exclusion of Sunnis from political power. As long as Sunnis don’t have the full influence they should enjoy, military deployment is pointless. Furthermore, the western military presence increases the chances of renewed violence against Europe and the United States.’

Provisional results of the Turkish parliamentary elections indicate that left Kurdish party HDP has succeeded in exceeding the 10% minimum threshold for representation.

The Turkish Parliamentary elections held today have been overshadowed by the large number of violent attacks that have occurred in the country. On Friday four people were killed and over a hundred wounded in a bloody bomb attack on a mass meeting of the left Kurdish party HDP. HDP has been the main target of attacks, but is by no means the only group which has had to cope with a wave of violence over the last few weeks. SP Senator Tiny Kox, who heads an international team of election observers sent to Turkey by the Council of Europe, told Turkish media that the upsurge of violence represents a threat to free and fair elections. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu made a similar declaration, while HDP Chair Selahattin Demirtaş called on supporters to keep calm. Who is behind the violence remains unclear, while parties continue to accuse each other.