Worldlog week 4 – 2015

Last week was marked by the terrible attacks in Paris. Worldwide, millions of people took to the streets to stand up for free speech and to show support to the relatives. The protest signs in Paris saying NOT AFRAID were very striking. In the Parliamentary debate about the attack, I called on the government to actively work towards a society in which there is more connection and togetherness, so that young people do not derail but gain perspective. That we must stand by all our freedoms and that, therefore, further repression and restriction of the privacy would further infringe our free and open society, whereas we want to cherish and defend that society.

Last Sunday, the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation, our party’s scientific bureau, presented its newest book Meat, The Future – How Cutting Meat Consumption Can Feed Billions More. After various inspiring speakers from the world of science, I had the honour to close the day. Click here to order the book in English.

Last week, I asked Parliamentary questions on the severe suffering of calves after dehorning. With this practice, calves may suffer severely for up to 44 hours after dehorning. More than 1 in 5 farmers do not take any measures to control the pain when dehorning calves, because they see no benefit in controlling pain or for economic reasons. We want a ban on the dehorning of calves.

I am pleased to announce that Niko Koffeman has again been nominated as leading candidate for the upcoming Upper House elections. Niko is our current member of the Upper House and co-founder of the party. He hopes to place animals, nature and the environment on the agenda again in the Upper House and beyond.

There was a lot of news from Europe this week. Anja Hazekamp, our MEP, has been working hard to bring animal rights to the attention in Brussels. Next Thursday, the European Parliament will vote in Strasbourg on the priority list of the European Commission for 2015. The key issues from our proposal include drastically shortening animal transports, a ban on meat from cloned animals and better enforcement of existing animal welfare rules. In addition, Anja will propose as issues on the priority list a scaling down of intensive cattle farming, improved animal welfare guarantees for products that carry the “organic” label and an end to fishing in areas where fishing populations are under threat of extinction.

With regard to fisheries, proposals were made last week to close fisheries in vulnerable areas in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and to protect coral reefs from looting and damage.

Jean Claude Juncker, Head of the European Commission, will soon have a meeting with Klaus Iohannis, the recently elected president of Romania. Anja Hazekamp has asked Juncker to make an appeal to Iohannis to stop the mass slaughter of stray dogs in Romania.

Furthermore, new European GMO regulations were approved last week. It is a matter of great concern that, by doing so, the EU has opened its doors for more GMO products. Of course, we will continue to fight against this!

See you next week, Marianne