European countries can only have a big say in world affairs if they work together: so how far should Europe go in its common foreign and security policy? As well as facing new security threats, it is widely recognized that many environmental, health, development, trade and other issues are world problems that need global responses. So what should Europe stand for in the world? What can Europe do to promote democracy, decent work and human rights? How can it promote better global governance? How can it encourage not only development but sustainable development? How can it foster development that lifts people out of poverty and not only bring wealth to a few?
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Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 09:42
by
Duncan Anderson 
in EU in the world (123 views and 0 comments)
I don't want to suggest that PES/EU can solve this problem within one term of office. But I do think that the EU should start talking to other countries and organisations about dealing with the consequences of over population.
Over population or having more people on the planet that it can sustain was a topic of discussion during the 1970s and China responded. I'm not saying that we or other countries should follow China's route.
But over population is at the core of many global problems. We need to use artificial fertilisers and G.M. products to feed the world and even then a lot of people starve. There is insufficient water to both grow food for people and for them to drink. We can't provide enough energy for everybody without damaging the planet.
Question, how do we address the twin problems of having a sustainable level of population on this planet? Answer, I don't know, but I'm interested in listening to there people's views.
If it is decided to reduce the population we have to consider the demographics of having more older people who are above a working age - but still need food, water and energy - than younger people who would be generating income and therefore taxes to pay for the water, food and energy of the older people.
But until we start discussing these concepts, both amongst ourselves and with other countries we're not going to fully understand the problems and therefore we won't find the correct answers.
Tags: energy, environment, food crisis, solidarity
Published Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 09:34
by
yoan.abiven
in EU in the world (210 views and 0 comments)
S’inspirer de soixante
années d’expérience de la construction européenne pour avancer un
nécessaire projet d’Union Méditerranéenne est, à première vue, une
idée excellente. Vigilance pourtant au moment de manipuler le
vocabulaire et les méthodes de la success story européenne.
L’Europe des pères fondateurs ne se résume ni à quelque technique
habile, ni à quelques mots magiques, pas plus qu'à des partenariats
économiques tous azimuts. Elle oblige génétiquement à un partage de
souveraineté sur ce qui fait mal. L’Europe politique n’est
pas née seulement et durablement des moyens financiers offerts par
le plan Marshall. Elle s’est imposée dans le sillage d’un geste
politique historique, celui de la déclaration Schuman. Or, cette
initiative allait bien au-delà du champ économique. Il ne
s’agissait pas d’annoncer la restauration du théâtre de Bayreuth
avec des prêts bonifiés ! A cette époque, on voyait plus loin, on
visait plus haut. On confiait à une autorité politique nouvelle
ce... » read more ...Tags: citizens, economy, immigration, security, solidarity
Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 16:37
by
Editor
in EU in the world (291 views and 3 comments)
Tags: development, European Parliament, fair trade, solidarity
Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 10:12
by
markus.austria
in EU in the world (202 views and 1 comments)
Tags: activists, Africa, defence, democracy, development, multilateralism, peace, poverty, UN
File:
PES manifesto consultation.pdf
Published Friday, April 25, 2008 at 15:40
by
Editor
in EU in the world (235 views and 0 comments)
Tags: development, human rights, NGO, poverty
Published Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 12:10
by
BenoitFabre
in EU in the world (353 views and 1 comments)
Nous sommes embourbés dans quelques pays du Tiers-monde : Afghanistan, Irak, Kosovo, où nous déployons le maximum de nos capacités déportables sans succès.
Imaginez un instant que la dictature chinoise paranoiaque, qui n'est pas en voie de démocratisation par l'économie, mais ressemble plutot à un virus mutant, aie une poussée de fièvre militariste, contre Taiwan tout d'abord, puis contre le Vietnam, la Corée et le Japon, sans parler de ses rivalités avec l'Inde. Que serions nous en mesure de faire ?
Je rappelle que la Chine nous tient en nous jouant les uns contre les autres dans la compétition économique, qu'elle a acheté les meilleurs sous-marins soviétiques, qu'elle peut faire exploser en vol nos satellites espions, qu'elle a 3 millions d'hommes sous les drapeaux complètement fanatisés, que sa population est nationaliste car ignorante des enjeux internationaux, donc prête à une longue et dure guerre. Et nous ?
Pour moi, la nouvelle doctrine anti-dictature devrait englober une vaste alliance OTAN_bis:USA+Europe_PESD+Russie, alliée à l'Inde, au Japon et à la Corée du Sud. Il y a urgence à ne pas s'endormir sur nos lauriers, et à décripter le véritable langage de rapport de force de la dictature chinoise.
Published Monday, April 14, 2008 at 14:46
by
Pierre_Kanuty
in EU in the world (335 views and 0 comments)
What a cruel joke
and what a fundamental question we are confronted with today:
just switch on your television set or read your newspaper, and
you will see how much the prices of raw materials have increased.
This in turn has led to an explosion of violence in the
developing countries, with what we now call the 'hunger riots'.
Let us not forget that the same kind of riots often led to big
revolutions in the past.
Since then, democracy has allowed us to generate the necessary conditions to anticipate these problems in order to solve them with all parties involved. If the weapon of the hungry and the poor remains violence, it is because politics and democracy are not part of these processes. Indeed, for a long time, the functioning of international regulatory bodies has been put into question. As socialists and social-democrats, we are not calling for their abolition but rather for their democratization. The work launched by the French socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) follows this rationale in a will to better represent emerging countries. The idea is that the IMF should no longer be the 'banking police of rich countries' systematically oppressing those nations in need.
We are working on the PES manifesto... » read more ...
Tags: decent work, food crisis, poverty
Published Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 14:36
by
Editor
in EU in the world (401 views and 2 comments)
Here is an opinion
from Jusos –
the German social democratic youth organization:
Slowly but steadily the European Union has been finding its role
in the world by shaping a common EU foreign policy. More and more
tools have been developed and policies defined.
However, Brussels is running the risk of loosing sight of one of
its main origin: control of arms! The central objective of the
European Cool and Steel Community at the very beginning was to
make war unlikely by controlling and restricting the resources
needed for weapons. Arms control and disarmament were two
dominant goals on the European level to further foster peace and
stability.
Today, disarmament and arms control do not seem to play a major
role on the European level any more. The European Security
Strategy from 2003 does not even mention "disarmament" once. The
European discussion on US plans of establishing missile defence
systems on EU soil had only been half-hearted by most actors. And
instead of being committed to stop weapons flow into conflict
regions, the EU opened up an Armament Agency in order to
coordinate and improve its own weapons production being already
one of the biggest exporters in the world.» read more ...
Tags: conflict, defence, disarmement
Published Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 09:57
by
Editor
in EU in the world (466 views and 0 comments)
Tags: barometer, decent work, defence, democracy, fair trade, Russia, UN, USA
Published Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 10:52
by
Editor
in EU in the world (455 views and 2 comments)
Social democratic
European foundations are working hard to contribute to a PES
manifesto based on progressive values. The first meeting of the
European Network of Social-Democratic Foundations (ENSoF) took
place on 29 March 2008 in the beautiful city of Sofia, under the
coordinating wing of the Institute for
Social Integration of Bulgaria, to debate issues related to the
manifesto theme ‘EU in the world’.Tags: defence, disarmement, Middle East, multilateralism, neighbours, Russia, security, USA
Published Friday, March 28, 2008 at 15:30
by
ania_skrzypek
in EU in the world (611 views and 4 comments)
Today is the first
sunny day in Brussels, after a week of snow, rain, cold and
grey-dom. One wakes up – and U2 song ‘It’s a beautiful
day’ seem to be sung inside oneself just naturally….
This is how me and you wake up. Probably you open the sink listening to the water falling down into wash basin steadily…Sip of coffee with no thoughts of where it came from… Warm cotton t-shirt surrounds your neck… fair trade? What is fair trade during such a joyful morning? On TV the news presenter says something about some protests or riots in far away country, but no time for that – same tv claims it is already 8. Aha, you think with little anger, you will be late for work – why do people have to go to the office on such a beautiful Friday and sit there till 5 anyway? You think closing the door. The day begun – and within those two hours of pure enjoyment of yours – somewhere in Asia a kid went to factory instead of school, somewhere in Africa a poor family begun its walk to unknown, somewhere in Latin America a trade unionist get bullied again, somewhere in EU a jobless single mother goes for another job hunt. “Beautiful day”? Indeed!
You might think – I am crazy... » read more ...
Tags: aid, blogger of the week, decent work, fair trade, globalization, poverty, solidarity
Published Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 11:00
by
frederic.vareillas
in EU in the world (326 views and 1 comments)
Hi,
Recently, the French President took a trip to Washington to say to the US congress how he "admired John Wayne". I won't elaborate.
Then John Mc Cain came to Paris and that same President promised to send more French troops to Afghanistan.
Next, the French President is preparing an alliance with Britain to develop Nuclear technology, build and export nuclear plants with the British and only the British.
He baptized a new submarine with sixteen nuclear missiles on board ("the Terrible", by the way).
I have just one thing to say : My God ! What does Germany think about that ?
Regards,
Frederic (Paris)
Tags: conflict, defense, energy, Multilareralism, neighbours, peace, security, USA
Published Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 10:50
by
corinnebord
in EU in the world (286 views and 0 comments)
L'enjeu est de taille,
comment travailler avec l'ensemble des pays de la méditerranée.
La réflexion est longue.
Le forum de Paris cette année a comme thématique : Une Union pour la Méditerranée, Pourquoi faire et comment ?
Le week-end prochain, les 28, 29 et 30 mars seront consacrés au débat, à la réflexion et aux pistes de construction.
Débats à suivre et cliquer pour s'inscrire.
La première journée sera consacrée à un état des lieux des relations entre les riverains de « notre mer». Le matin seront abordés les... » read more ...
Tags: euroméditerranée
Published Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 10:55
by
Poul_Nyrup_Rasmussen
in EU in the world (303 views and 0 comments)
First of all:
congratulations to the Spanish socialist party, PSOE, for winning the
national elections in Spain!Published Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 09:20
by
cafeneaua.politica
in EU in the world (317 views and 0 comments)
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