News

N-VA MEP personally pleads case for release of blogger Badawi with Saudi government

10 February 2016
Mark Demesmaeker

N-VA MEP Mark Demesmaeker, the European Conservatives and Reformists’ (ECR) spokesperson on human rights, met the Saudi Minister of Justice and asked him personally to release the blogger Raif Badawi. “A release still seems taboo. Stopping the thousand lashes, however, is indeed an option now,” …

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A thousand extra police to combat radicalisation and terrorism

5 February 2016

The police force will acquire an additional thousand policemen and women by 2019. That is what Minister of Security and the Interior Jan Jambon announced when presenting the federal action plan against radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorism. That also includes the plan for the Brussels …

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High time for Europe to tackle social dumping

4 February 2016

Last year, half of all companies were caught out in targeted checks for social dumping. Numerous breaches were found especially in the construction and transport industries. According to Member of Parliament Wouter Raskin, the Belgian government's approach is beneficial, but the actual …

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Government supports Kurds in their fight against IS

3 February 2016

The Belgian government will provide military as well as humanitarian support to the Peshmergas, the Kurdish combatants battling IS. Specifically, this means that Belgium will provide medical equipment directly to the Kurdish government in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Germans responsible …

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European Parliament heeds call for full implementation of nature laws

3 February 2016

A very broad majority of the European Parliament has just adopted the report of MEP Mark Demesmaeker on biodiversity. Demesmaeker asks the European Commission not to revise the nature directives, but on the contrary to fully implement them. The Flemish MEP is very satisfied: “The Parliament sends …

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Like the British, the Flemish N-VA want an efficient EU

3 February 2016
Sander Loones

In November, British Prime Minister David Cameron formulated demands aimed at achieving a more efficient European Union, and to update the relationship between the EU and UK. After intense discussions, today the European Council President Donald Tusk made Europe's counteroffer. It is a draft …

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