The Netherlands and US Big Pharma Clash: US "Big Pharma" lashes out at Dutch Government for wanting to control pricing

Note Almere-Digest: It looks like the US Pharmaceutical Industry is also trying to use the same heavy handed political tactics and arguments in the Netherlands like they are used to doing in America. In the Netherlands they are doing their lobbying through their membership in the local chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce, which even has a specific Pharmaceutical Committee within that organization. US Big Pharma and Chemical Industry Lobbyists are also swarming all over the EU parliament to promote their products and influence the European decision makers.Hopefully the Dutch Government and the EU Commission will continue to resist these devious attempts to influence the government decision makers

Read more at: 
https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2019/02/06/netherlands-novartis-vertex-drug-prices/

The Netherlands - Free Market Forces in Health-Care and Education not benefitting Netherlands consumers - by RM

After returning back home from America to the Netherlands, it struck me how incredibly passive the Dutch population reacts to many decisions of their Government, which unfortunately, usually negatively affects the "pocketbooks" of the average Dutch citizen.

Particularly, because when these decisions are announced, the  Dutch Government gives little or often no clear explanation, about the nature or reasons for these decisions. Their catch words usually are, either to improve the economy or to cut costs.

One example is the Dutch Health-Care system, which was changed a few years ago from a government controlled Universal Health-Care program, to a "Market controlled version, now mainly controlled by Insurance companies.

According to a recently held opinion poll, however, a majority (more than 60%) of the Dutch population wants to return to the old system of Universal Health-Care, since the new system, now run by Insurance companies has steadily increased their costs for affordable Health-Care .

In the field of education, Dutch students, who used to be able to apply for a free scholarship, which they did not have to pay off, after they successfully had completed their educational program, now have to pay back their scholarship through a loan program, including interest.

Unfortunately, many Dutch politicians, and large companies have abused the concept of "market forces" to create the suggestion of freedom and honesty.

A truly free market offers advantages, but with economic "spins and gibberish", as it does now, it certainly does not.

Bottom - line, the Dutch citizen is now at the mercy of a few large suppliers - and the so-called benefits of the market forces do not end up being tangible economic benefits to them .

The Netherlands economy, unfortunately,  is starting to look more and more like that of the US, and that certainly is a scary idea. 

Isn't it time to man the barricades?

C: this article can be published if source is identified as EU-Figest

EU-Digest

EU: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 Says Report Pew Research Center

Note EU-Digest: this figure is in total contrast to the nonsense European Populist politicians are saying, which is that the EU will become a Muslim Political Entity by 2030

Read more: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 | Pew Research Center

The Netherlands: "Big Brother" Wire Tapping: Government Wire Tapping Powers 'rejected' by Dutch in Referendum

The Netherlands Rejects "Big Brother" wanting to watch them

The Netherlands put to a referendum new legislation, officially the Intelligence and Security Law.

The bill gave new powers to the Netherlands' intelligence services.

They would be able to install wire taps on whole areas, rather than just individuals, store information for up to three years and share this data with other spy agencies.

An independent panel would have to approve these wire taps before they could go ahead.

Both the lower and upper chambers of the Netherlands parliament passed the law last year,

Voters, however, in the Netherlands appear to have narrowly rejected the new online data collection powers for intelligence agencies in the referendum which was held in on March 21.

With about 90% of votes counted, 48.8% have rejected the powers, with 47.3% in favour.

An exit poll by the national broadcaster had earlier suggested a victory for "yes".

Supporters of the law say the powers could help fight terrorism, while opponents say the law could be invasion of privacy.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte has promised to take the Referendum vote seriously --And he better do so, even though the result is non-binding, this no-vote will  require a re-debate in parliament. 

This is a controversial issue, which would have allowed "Big Brother" to put their nose even deeper into Dutch citizens personal privacy, under the nebulous pretext of national security. As if there are not enough government agencies already infringing on citizens privacy say the no-voters.

EU-Digest

Netherlands Parliament Recognizes Armenian Genocide - but Government so far takes no action

The lower house of the Dutch parliament, local known as the Tweede Kamer, passed two resolutions on Thursday with a majority vote one recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the other calling on its foreign minister to visit Armenia in April to observe the anniversary of that crime.

According to NLTimes, both motions were submitted by ChristenUnie party parliament member Joel Voordewind. All four coalition parties supported the motions.

The Netherlands has not recognized the Genocide thus far, however, the majority of the parliament voted on Thursday to change that course and officially recognize the events of 1915 as Genocide.

Note: This is a very controversial issue which happened more than 100 years ago and the Netherlands Government would act wisely to refrain from taking any further action on the issue until more research is avaible.

EU-Digest

The Netherlands: How to bring Government and the Public closer together to reach common achievable goals - by RM

The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, which apart from looking into all issues that have an interface with the environment, roads and waterways, also looks at innovative ideas, to provide solutions this ministry's diverse agenda requires.

The ministry argues that "if you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got." They say this is a valuable insight they use on a daily basis, because it makes things predictable and computable.

They call that experience.

But sometimes, they argue that experience also gets in their way. Especially if we ask for boundary solutions. As Einstein said: "We can not solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them". 

If it really is different, if a breakthrough is reallyrequired, we ask people from all around the Netherlands to think "out-of-the-box".

Out of the box? And how do you do that, you might ask? Are people willing to say goodbye to their comfortable standards, values and thinking patterns? And are they able to cut new paths in their own brain with a surgical knife, so to speak ?

LEF Session in Action

LEF helps to realize this concept. "Only when people really break their existing thinking patterns and frameworks,there is room for real innovation, for a real breakthrough they say. 

LEF Future Center is the organization within the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment-specializing in the creation of breakthroughs and new patterns.

As to the practical side of how this LEF concept works, this came at the invitation of Erdal Sahin,, who invited me to attend one of these LEF sessions, at what the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment calls the FUTURE CENTER, housed in the impressive modern Ministry building in Utrecht.

The theme of this particular group discussion I attended, focused on "How to bring the Government and the Public closer together in reaching common achievable goals, eventually benefiting the community at-large".

Dialog works in achieving common goals

The groups were divided in a variety of "psychological categories", which by itself is already quite an innovative approach, to get people thinking about similar issues, from different angles, based on their own interest and inner composure, but with the same ultimate goals in mind.

At the conclusion of this very interesting gathering of people, from a variety of disciplines, one could say that the overall opinion seemed to be that change will and can happen, mainly as a result of grass-roots movements, which start at the Public level, moving via the Municipal level, to eventually reach the Government level to make change happen.

It must also noted that over the years the so-called "trickle-down" philosophy, whereby both the dialog and the economy are being directed to flow from the Government and/or the Corporate sector downwards, thereby benefiting the Public sector, has shown to be counter- productive and in many cases a total failure

With LEF obviously organizing many of these events throughout the year, one would hope the data of these dialogs are circulated and available, not only among government ministries, but also at municipalities, and educational institutions .    

Compliments to the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, LEF and the organizers for putting this most stimulating event together.

The Netherlands - the contaminated egg scandal: Fipronil in eggs: Dutch police arrest two suspects

The Netherlands Egg Contamination Scandal

Police in the Netherlands have detained two businessmen suspected of being involved in the illegal use of a pesticide in the poultry industry. Millions of fipronil-contaminated eggs have been recalled since the scandal broke.

Dutch prosecutors said in a statement Thursday the men are directors of a company that allegedly used an unauthorized insecticide at poultry farms.

Investigators in the Netherlands and Belgium made the arrests during a string of coordinated raids linked to their probe into how fipronil, which can be harmful to humans, made it into the food chain.

"The Dutch investigation focused on the Dutch company that allegedly used fipronil, a Belgian supplier as well as a Dutch company that colluded with the Belgian supplier," the prosecutors said.

"They are suspected of putting public health in danger by supplying and using fipronil in pens containing egg-laying chickens."

Authorities in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany recalled millions of eggs at the start of the month after the discovery of fipronil in batches delivered to supermarkets. Dozens of poultry farms, mainly in the Netherlands but also in Belgium, have been closed down, while supermarkets have cleared tainted eggs from their shelves.

The French agriculture ministry confirmed on Friday that 250,000 contaminated eggs had been "on the market" in France between April and July. Five companies using egg products had been involved. A first batch of 196,000 eggs from Belgium had been placed on the market between April 16 and May 2 and a second lot from the Netherlands of 48,000 eggs had been sold through Leader Price shops between July 19 and 28.

Note EU-Digest: The European Commissioner charged with food safety has called for a meeting of ministers and national watchdogs to discuss the fallout of an eggs contamination scare that has led to finger pointing between several European Union members. 

Tensions had risen between agricultural ministers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany after traces of moderately toxic insecticide fipronil were found in batches of eggs, linked by authorities to a Dutch supplier of cleaning products. 

Read more: Fipronil in eggs: Dutch police arrest two suspects | News | DW | 10.08.2017

Contaminated eggs: Belgium claims Dutch allowed sales of bad eggs for more than eight months - R,Hackwill

The Dutch Contaminated Egg Scandal

The scandal over insecticide-contaminated eggs that were discovered in the Netherlands last week and withdrawn from sale is taking on a European dimension, after the Belgians claimed the Dutch authorities knew about the problem late last year, but did nothing to prevent their export or inform the rest of the EU.

The scandal over insecticide-contaminated eggs that were discovered in the Netherlands last week and withdrawn from sale is taking on a European dimension, after the Belgians claimed the Dutch authorities knew about the problem late last year, but did nothing to prevent their export or inform the rest of the EU.

“Member states have the primary responsibility for conducting investigations and taking the appropriate measures. The European Commission has taken and will continue to take all available measures to assist them in their task,” said Commission spokesman Daniel Rosario.

Eggs are eggs, and can be tracked down and binned, but it is unclear how many have found their way into other things, like pasta or baked goods. Each country will have to perform its own enquiry.

Note Almere-Digest: Basically the Dutch Government attitude to the problem is: "you would have to eat a lot of eggs before it could harm you" - like saying poison is only bad for you if you take a lot of it. 

Poison is poison and none of it should be in the food chain, period.  

Read more: Belgium claims Dutch allowed sales of contaminated eggs for more than eight months | Euronews

Sustainable Energy: Netherlands One Of Least Sustainable EU Countries. How Did The Dutch Get Their fake Green Image?

The Netherlands is the country where all passenger trains are powered by wind energy, where your groceries can be delivered by all-electric vans, and where people cycle over solar bike lanes, so the Dutch must be sustainability champions, right? Absolutely not.

The fact of the matter is that the Dutch are not, not even close. Compared to its fellow EU member states, the Netherlands comes in at an embarrassingly low 26th position in terms of the share of renewables in the energy mix. In 2014, 5.5% of the Netherlands’ energy was generated sustainably.

Out of the 28 EU countries, only Malta (4.7%) and Luxembourg (4.5%) performed worse. But those have very few inhabitants and small territories, Luxembourg being a landlocked city-state and Malta a densely populated island with a much lower per capita income than the Dutch.

By other measures, the Netherlands is not doing any better. In a 2015 report by the European Energy Agency, the Netherlands was found to be the only EU member state who was not on track for reaching the EU-wide targets set under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which is the European Commission’s program for ensuring the EU as a whole will reach 20% renewable energy by 2020 and 27% by 2030. According to the same report, the Netherlands is falling increasingly behind, as a year before there were still several other countries that were below their trajectory for reaching the RED targets.

The targets themselves are different for each member state, depending on what can “realistically” be achieved from the nation’s starting position. As depicted below, the Dutch target is already substantially under the 20% average.

Read more: Netherlands One Of Least Sustainable EU Countries. How Did The Dutch Get Their Green Image? | CleanTechnica

The Netherlands - NSA Spying: Home affairs minister Plasterk under fire over security service phone taps

Ronald Plasterkerk and the NSA

Dutch Home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk and defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert were summoned by the prime minister on Wednesday night to explain the confusion over exactly who gathered information on 1.8 million phone calls and text messages.

The ministers told parliament yesterday the Dutch, not the American, secret services were responsible for monitoring the phone calls, and that the information had then been shared with the US authorities.

Parliament is due to debate the latest information next week. Opposition MPs want to know if Plasterk deliberately misinformed parliament last year when he stated NSA was behind the information gathering.

Plasterk said: 'The details were collected in the interest of counter-terrorism activities and military operations abroad,’ the briefing stated. The information was then ‘shared with the US’.

Note EU-Digest: The question that needs to be asked in the Dutch Parliament is - "who requested the info in the first place and if it was the NSA why were Dutch citizen privacy rights breached and why was this information given so freely to this US spy agency ? "

Read more: DutchNews.nl - Home affairs minister under fire over security service phone taps