19 posts
Article on FMG, the Netherlands and the ECHR
My Utrecht colleague from the institute of criminal law, Renée Kool, has just published 'The Dutch approach to female genital mutilation in view of the ECHR. The time for change has come' in the latest issue of the Utrecht Law Review (Vol. 6, No. 1,...
Geert Wilders: The first truly European politician?
I don’t like Geert Wilders, because, whereas I do agree with some of his conclusions, I’m loath to pigeonhole any group of people because of their religion. Muslims are no more all anti-democrats than Irish Catholics are all pedophiles. Y...
The Dutch role in Iraq
After chipping away for nearly a year, the committee Davids presented this morning in The...
Launch of National Plan for HRE in the Netherlands
On Human Rights Day, 10 December 2009, a National Plan for Human Rights Education was adopted by the Dutch government and civil society organisations. The Stimuleringsplan voor de integratie van mensenrechteneducatie in het funderend onderwijs outlin...
Dutch intelligence services clash with Dutch press
A new and yet typical story revealing the tricky links between the press and intelligence services has sparked a passionate debate in the Netherlands on the freedom of the press and state-secret information. Two people linked to the Dutch Intellig...
Dutch Government Considers Safeguard Clause for Bulgaria and Romania
Dutch Minister of European Affairs Frans Timermans has asked the Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot to consider the possible activation of the safeguard clause for the judiciary together with the forthcoming publication of the CVM report on Romania...
European Elections 2009: A walk in the park [Mats SIFFELS]
Campaigning season in the Netherlands is almost over; tomorrow, according to the polls between 40% and 67% of the potential voters will let its voice be known. What is going to be the outcome? I honestly have no clue and neither does anybody else sin...
Promoting elections in the Netherlands [Anita KALMANE]
Only in the last few days I have started to notice some promotional activities going on here in the Netherlands. I was trying hard to see any official European Parliament posters on the streets in Amsterdam, but haven’t managed so far no matter...
Libertas Netherlands on Torture - part two [simonvanwoerden]
Normally, it would be against my blogging instinct to refrain from using images, audio or video. But here, I do not wish to distract or to entertain. Here, it’s just words. Convincing, inspiring and much-read words I hope. The video-spoof I posted...
European Parliament elections 2009 (93): Why running for the EP? - An interview with Wim van de Camp (Dutch EP candidate)
An interesting interview by New Europe TV with the head of the Dutch Christian Democratic list for the EP elections 2009, Wim van de Camp, at the EPP Congress in Warsaw.Mr van de Camp explains what he thinks should be to role of the European Union co...
The Netherlands- from Europhile to Euro-ignorant? [Mats SIFFELS]
Marketing-research company Synovate has published a report on the involvement of Dutch citizens in the EP elections. And guess what, do Dutch people Think About It? Well… no. Nothing new, but sad nonetheless. 23% are aware of the fact that ther...
“I think dismissing the EU as unimportant is utterly ridiculous”- Well happy birthday Judith! [Mats SIFFELS]
A couple of days ago I presented to you the Dutch liberal politician Hans van Baalen. Judith Sargentini, the next politician to answer my questions is from the complete opposite side of the political spectrum, the left-wing/environmentalist party Gro...
The Dutch obsession with national parliaments
Adriaan Schout and Jeroen van Dijken wrote a column last week in Dutch daily de Volkskrant entitled EU kan goed zonder Europees Parlement - essentially that the EU could do OK without the European Parliament. I picked up on the story via euro...
Dutch EU project fund remains controversial
Dutch European Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans this week formally turned down a request to financially support an innovative webTV news project called BrusselVandaag.nl, saying he does not believe such a project can contribute properly to the debat...
Policy dialogue about Dutch development cooperation
span style="font-style:italic;"Source: a href="http://www.mdf.nl/index.php/page/228" target="_blank"MDF Newsletter, July 2008/a/spanbr /br /div style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px;" a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/euforic/2121878145/" title...
Netherlands: Lisbon Treaty ratification 21
The Second Chamber of the Netherlands Parliament or the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal) had approved the EU Treaty of Lisbon 5 June 2008 by an overwhelming majority, 111 against 39. From there the ratification bill w...
