EU in the world Archives: April 2008

  • Josep Borrell: We need to promote fair trade

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    Rating: 4.8/5 with 5 votes

    Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 16:37
    by Editor (696 views and 3 comments)

    Josep Borrell is Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish socialist party, PSOE. He was President of the European Parliament 2004-2007 and in this video he gives his ideas for the PES manifesto:



    Do you agree with Josep Borrell's suggestions for the PES manifesto?

    Tags: development, European Parliament, fair trade, solidarity

  • The future is always beginning now...

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    Rating: 3.8/5 with 5 votes

    Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 10:12
    by markus.austria Join PES activists (517 views and 1 comments)

    In my post I would like to adress the following questions as proposed in the discussion paper (available at the top of this page or here):

    2. What sort of UN reform should the EU propose?
    I think that - in the longterm - the UN Security Council should be replaced by the UN General Assembly as the central decision making body within the UN umbrella. To this end, I think it will be necessary to elect UN representatives in direct elections to arrive at a sort of 'world elections' in a manifestation of the supremacy of democracy over other, more exclusive forms of government.
     
    4. How should the EU work efficiently with NATO?
    I think we should think about developing military structures on a European level outside NATO in order to indenpendently carry out missions covered by the Petersberg tasks and the UN. Also, I think the EU member states actively engaged in the NATO should press the US to restrain from engaging private contractors in conflic regions (keyword: Blackwater).
     
    8. What actions should be undertaken by the EU to achieve the UN Millennium Goals?
    I think that the sole establishment of a headline number, such as 0.7 percent of GDP spent on Development Aid, will not be sufficient to... » read more ...

    Tags: activists, Africa, defence, democracy, development, multilateralism, peace, poverty, UN

    File: PES manifesto consultation.pdf

  • NGO interview: Focusing on people's rights

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    Rating: 3.5/5 with 2 votes

    Published Friday, April 25, 2008 at 15:40
    by Editor (538 views and 0 comments)

    ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency whose aim is to fight poverty worldwide. Joanna Maycock is EU Representative and presents ActionAid's suggestions for the PES manifesto in this video interview:

    Tags: development, human rights, NGO, poverty

  • Le choc militaire avec la Chine

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    Rating: 2.7/5 with 3 votes

    Published Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 12:10
    by BenoitFabre (684 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.

    Tags: China, defence, Russia, USA

  • Let us not leave the peoples of the world hungry for more...

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    Rating: 4.3/5 with 4 votes

    Published Monday, April 14, 2008 at 14:46
    by Pierre_Kanuty Join PES activists (563 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

  • German young social democrats: Vote for disarmament!

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    Rating: 3.8/5 with 8 votes

    Published Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 14:36
    by Editor (731 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

  • manifesto2009 barometer: EU in the world II

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    Rating: 4/5 with 2 votes

    Published Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 09:57
    by Editor (748 views and 0 comments)

    The debates on the theme 'EU in the world' continue on a speedy track. During the last month a lot of progressive view-points and ideas have been aired - also on the international responsibilities of the EU and of each and every European citizen. Here’s an account of the debate since the last 'EU in the world' barometer:

    A more transparent and accountable EU foreign policy
    A new debate has been started by social democratic European foundations on the need to have a more transparent and more accountable EU foreign policy. The aim is to ensure that European citizens are aware that, besides the gaps that are always highlighted in the news headlines, the EU is quite successful in its external policies. More democratic control is also required, including through the European Parliament.

    Development - a focus on brain drain and decent work
    Participants are concerned about development as a crucial aspect of the EU’s external activities. Brain drain is a key issue, with Scandinavian PES activists considering that knowledge sharing, education, and brain drain must be given a lot of... » read more ...

    Tags: barometer, decent work, defence, democracy, fair trade, Russia, UN, USA

  • Foundations debate 'EU in the world' in sunny Sofia

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    Rating: 3.8/5 with 5 votes

    Published Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 10:52
    by Editor (760 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’.

    There was a general agreement on the need to have a more transparent and more accountable EU foreign policy, in order to ensure that European citizens are aware that, besides the gaps that are always highlighted in the news headlines, the EU is quite successful in its external policies - for instance in its projects and missions in Eastern European countries. Discussions addressed the need to reinforce strategic partnerships with key international actors such as the United States and Russia. A strong and independent European security and defence policy was viewed as a way to ensure the EU can act alone, even militarily, when required, even without the support of the United States and of NATO – but always in full respect... » read more ...

    Tags: defence, disarmement, Middle East, multilateralism, neighbours, Russia, security, USA