http://international.sp.nl/news/ SP - International nl SP - International Thu, 17 May 2012 03:32:02 +0200 Ome Ko's eReSeS-Fieder / Half2.nl http://international.sp.nl/bericht/88579/120516-the_sp_is_a_proudly_internationalist_party.html Wed, 16 May 2012 10:18:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 88579@http://international.sp.nl Willem Melching recently called the SP a ‘nationalistic party’. As evidence, however, the Amsterdam historian offers nothing but the fact that our party is an avowed opponent of the way in which Europe has in the last twenty years been continually vandalised. This is an odd stance for a man who likes to say that ‘facts are the basis of all historical reasoning’. Anyone who knows the SP will see that we are in reality a convinced internationalist party, one which wants European cooperation to be directed towards the essentials: peace, security and welfare – for everyone. http://international.sp.nl/bericht/88519/120515-money_down_the_drain_sp_questions_government_on_support_for_world_bank_water_privatisation_funding.html Tue, 15 May 2012 10:49:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 88519@http://international.sp.nl Prompted by a report from the campaigning NGO Corporate Accountability International which reveals the World Bank’s shocking bias in favour of the private sector, SP development spokesman Ewout Irrgang put a series of questions to the minister responsible for the government’s support for the programmes in question. Water privatisation has been proven not to help the poor, yet a quarter of all World Bank funding goes directly to corporations. In allocating its funds in this way, the Bank’s funding arm ignores even its own published standards of transparency. It also fails to respond to the failure of privatisation to address the problem of water supply in developing countries. Around a third of all private water contracts signed between 2000 and 2010 have failed or are in extreme difficulties – four times the failure rate of comparable infrastructure projects in the electricity and transport sectors. Below we publish Irrgang’s questions, and Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Ben Knapen’s thoroughly unsatisfactory answers. http://international.sp.nl/bericht/88309/120510-european_parliament_backs_sp_call_to_amend_european_investigation_order.html Thu, 10 May 2012 14:57:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 88309@http://international.sp.nl SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says that he is pleased with the support from the European Parliament Committee on Justice and Home Affairs for amendments to the European criminal investigation order. The criminal investigation order directive will govern the exchange of evidence between EU member states. ‘How evidence may legally be gathered touches on the principles of the rule of law,’ says De Jong. ‘Happily I have been able to persuade my colleagues that there are a number of problems with the proposal that needed solving. So there will now be no possibility for member states to ask other countries to gather evidence by means of dubious investigative methods.’ http://international.sp.nl/bericht/88243/120509-european_parliament_calls_halt_to_commission_spending_on_expert_groups.html Wed, 09 May 2012 20:14:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 88243@http://international.sp.nl The European Parliament has refused to release the money budgeted for the European Commission’s expert groups, committees established by the Commission to advise on EU legislation and policy. Commenting on the decision, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says: ‘Together with a broad group of MEPs I presented concrete demands to the Commission. The composition of the expert groups would have to change: no more CEOs masquerading as independent experts. For balance, small business people and representatives of trade unions, environmental groups and consumer advocates should be appointed more frequently. Now that the European Commission has shown itself unwilling to discuss this with us, the Parliament has slammed on the brakes.’ http://international.sp.nl/bericht/88087/120509-weeklog_dennis_de_jong_the_useless_manifesto_of_daniel_cohn_bendit.html Wed, 09 May 2012 09:51:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 88087@http://international.sp.nl The leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, has together with others brought out a manifesto, calling on all young people in Europe to sign up to it. That sounds like a good move from a former activist, but the document in question is full of hollow phrases and empty of social proposals. The EU member states have, according to Cohn-Bendit, made a real mess of things, and only Europe can help young people to move on. This is to stand the world on its head : it is precisely Brussels, with its fetishisism of austerity, which is exacerbating the crisis. Cohn-Bendit completely ignores this question. In my view, his manifesto is fit only for the waste-paper basket. http://international.sp.nl/bericht/88060/120504-van_bommel_eu_must_cut_spending_on_private_jets.html Fri, 04 May 2012 22:13:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 88060@http://international.sp.nl SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is demanding that the European Union cut its spending on the use of private aircraft without delay. 'According to the European Commission the EU budget for next year will have to increase by almost 7%,’ says Van Bommel . ‘That’s ridiculous enough, but in a time of austerity having yourself flown about at a rate of €20,000 a pop oversteps all reasonable bounds.' http://international.sp.nl/bericht/87511/120429-weeklog_dennis_de_jong_strange_procedures_in_brussels.html Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:37:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 87511@http://international.sp.nl Looking at developments in The Hague, I am struck by one thing: nobody raises any longer the question of whether the Brussels procedures, those which might be put into the framework of ‘economic governance’, are compatible with national democracy. Yet at the same time these procedures have been declared holy and inviolable. http://international.sp.nl/bericht/87424/120426-government_sought_to_conceal_arms_sale_from_parliament.html Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:03:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 87424@http://international.sp.nl ‘A scandalous strategy from Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal’ was how SP Member of Parliament reacted to the announcement that the government had sought to conceal the sale of tanks to Indonesia from the national Parliament. According to national daily De Telegraaf, Rosenthal wanted to reveal the tank deal only at the moment that the government had successfully negotiated an accord with other parties to enable budget cuts to go through, the so-called Catshuis Agreement, named for the Prime Minister’s official residence, where it was signed. The hope was that the announcement of the agreement would distract any possible attention away from the sale of the tanks. As Van Dijk says, ‘this is a well-known trick of lying politicians. Bring bad news out when the country is busy with other matters. We deserve an apology for this devious way of going about things.’ http://international.sp.nl/bericht/87427/120425-de_jong_denounces_shameless_inadequately_monitored_eu_spending.html Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:08:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 87427@http://international.sp.nl SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong has called the European Commission’s proposal for a budget increase of 6.8% for 2013 ‘shameless and utterly unrealistic’. De Jong: ‘It’s as if the European Commission believes there are two worlds – the Brussels world where money can be chucked around and the outside world where everyone has to tighten their belt.’ http://international.sp.nl/bericht/87421/120424-council_of_europe_urges_improvements_to_russian_electoral_system.html Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:59:00 +0200 webmaster@sp.nl (Webmaster International) 87421@http://international.sp.nl After two appallingly bad elections, Russia must conduct a rapid and thorough reform of its electoral system. Membership of the Council of Europe means that this biggest of member states has a duty to do so. Unprecedented mass protest in Russia has set the first changes in motion, but only if Russia carries out still further structural reforms will fair elections become possible. These were the conclusions drawn by SP Senator Tiny Kox, Rapporteur on the Russian elections for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, whose report, presented this week in Strasbourg, won support from across Europe for its conclusions and recommendations, including from the Russian parliament, the Duma, itself.