Published Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 23:57
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (1077 views and 0 comments)
The “Putting the puzzle together: policy coherence for decent work” Conference organized by the Global Progressive Forum (GPF), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Solidar and Social Alert International took place today in Lisbon, Portugal, preceding the International Labour Confederation (ILO) forum on Decent Work for a fair globalization.
Among the participants, a strong presence of trade unionists, members of civil society organizations but also members of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU. All together they called for achieving Decent Work at global level – an essential condition to attain a fairer globalization.
Juan Somavia, Director-General of ILO, underlined the importance of creating alliances among progressive associations – and having them working together coherently according to a toolkit providing common guide-lines. Portuguese Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity, José Vieira da Silva, has also mentioned the Decent Work as a new global vision of development. The Portuguese Minister connected “Decent Work Decent Life” to the Lisbon Strategy, as the success of the external dimension of the Lisbon Strategy would permit to strongly support Decent Work at a global scale. Moreover, a new concept of sustainable development for the 21st century would comprehend three subjects: preserving the environment, assuring human rights... » read more ...
Tags: decent work, development, fair trade, globalization, solidarity
Published Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 14:25
by
Editor
in European democracy & diversity (593 views and 0 comments)
A number of UK blogs have picked up the Yourspace vibe: Compass Youth, Dirty
Leftie and Peter Kenyon. Thanks for mentioning the manifesto2009 consultation!
Tags: blogosphere, citizens, manifesto
Published Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 22:41
by
estherbcn326
in New Social Europe (795 views and 0 comments)
The debate on the economic and social model that Catalonia needs cannot be held without taking into account the political strategy of the European Union in this field. In fact, since some years ago, the globalized world in which we live has made necessary for the Catalan economy to add its weight to the total weight of the European countries that conforms the Union, so as to reinforce its participation in the world market.
For much of its recent history, the European Union has been a
driving force of social and economic progress crucial for our
development. Until 2000, Directives such as the Equal Pay
Directive for men and women (1975), the Directive on the
protection of workers' health and safety at the workplace (1989),
the Directive protecting the rights of workers posted in another
Member State (1996) and the antidiscrimination Directives for
racial and employment equality (2000), brought big advances in
cohesion and in the quality of life for Europe's citizens.
However, from 2002 on, Europe has seen few significant social
policy initiatives, and this passivity –both from the European
Commission and the Members States- has concurred with an increase
of the socioeconomic tensions caused by the impact of
globalization in the labour market, with the massive... » read more ...
Tags: education, employment, equality, welfare
File:
Catalonia in the New Social Europe301007.doc
Published Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 14:08
by
Editor
in European democracy & diversity (550 views and 0 comments)
The new SPD program,
adopted at the party’s congress in Hamburg this weekend, defines
essential elements of European democracy in a sharp and clear
way. For German social democrats European democracy means
government based on responsible and accountable parliamentary
procedures.
For the SPD this implies that the European Parliament must stand on equal footing with the European Council. The Parliament should at the same time control the other European institution: for the SPD it has to be the European Parliament which elects the President of the European Commission.
A strong parliamentary democracy needs parties: the SPD wants to develop the PES into a real member party based on a long term program and the capacity to act effectively. At the elections for the European Parliament the SPD proposes one top social democratic candidate.
The SPD proposes structured cooperation of those member states which want to go further down the road towards a more democratic Europe. Such cooperation, however, needs to be open for all other member states.... » read more ...
Tags: citizens, democracy, EU, political parties
Published Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 11:18
by
Editor
in European democracy & diversity (561 views and 1 comments)
What is going on in
Brussels? Who is deciding what?Tags: citizens, democracy, EU, transparency
Published Monday, October 29, 2007 at 14:06
by
Editor
in EU in the world (650 views and 0 comments)
”Today Arena Europe has turned into a meeting place for world leaders. This makes it even more important for us as social democrats to have a policy that addresses the big questions,” said Inger Segelström during this weekend's ‘Palme Days’ in Karlstad, Sweden.
Inger Segelström is a member of the European Parliament and represents the Social Democratic Party of Sweden. In her speech at the Palme Days she invited all socialists and social democrats in Europe to take part in the debate about a common manifesto for the European elections in 2009.
Margot Wallström, vice president of the European Commission, also spoke at Palme Days. In the same spirit as other speakers she explained:
”Alone is not strong - social democrats have always built their peace efforts and their international commitment on collaboration. Now social democrats need to formulate political visions for Europe and the world - together with both members and voters”
According to Margot Wallström studies show that a great part of Europe’s citizens would like the EU to speak with one voice in the world, that the 27 member countries, the reunited Europe should be active in solving the... » read more ...
Tags: democracy, globalization, peace, solidarity
Published Friday, October 26, 2007 at 16:50
by
PESactivist
in European democracy & diversity (732 views and 3 comments)
The birth, development and maturity of the European Union has frequently been marked by the periods of ups and downs, occasional shortfalls and crises in political, economic and social spheres, yet Europe remained “TöGEthe® since 1957!”
Truth be told, Europe was divided and apart since 2005 when it went into doldrums over the Constitutional Treaty and it took two years of collective effort from politicians to put Europe back on track, and it will take even more time to repair the damage inflicted on the social approval of Europe, solidarity and public interest in the Union.
Nevertheless, the Lisbon Summit earlier last week marks the beginning of the end of the recent crisis. Neither British nor Polish opt-outs from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, or Poland's insistence to include 'Ioannina clause' making it possible to delay decisions in the Council, or even the number of "red lines" from the UK on cooperation in justice and home affairs will loosen the bounds among EU-27.
» read more ...Published Friday, October 26, 2007 at 11:08
by
Editor
in European democracy & diversity (566 views and 2 comments)
One of the PES activists, Chourka, has been interviewing socialists from Paris about the PES manifesto. The video below is with Rose from the French organization of young socialists, Mouvement des Jeunes Socialistes. She speaks about youth in Europe and what she would like to see in the PES manifesto.
How do the views of Parisian socialists compare to the opinion in
your town?
Find more interviews with Parisians in the PES manifesto2009 group at YouTube. Feel free
to add your own interviews and videos to the group. We would love
to bring them on Yourspace!
Tags: citizens, democracy, diversity, political parties
Published Friday, October 26, 2007 at 09:40
by
lubraneski
in New Social Europe (840 views and 2 comments)
L'adage populaire est-il prêt de s'éteindre?
La division "conditions de vie des ménages" de l'INSEE nous livre aujourd'hui les résultats d'une enquête sur la santé des plus pauvres d'entre nous. Exempt d'être traité de gauchiste, et scientifiquement plus opérationnel que les instituts de sondage, l'Institut National des Statistiques et des Etudes Economiques rend compte, avec cette étude, d'une situation extrêmement grave, qui, pour ceux d'entre nous qui y sont confrontés de plus près, n'est pas étonnante.
Elle n'est pas étonnante, mais elle est pour autant inadmissible. Inadmissible dans un pays développé comme le nôtre et disposant, contre toute idée reçue qu'un gouvernement voué à la classe dominante voudrait nous vendre, de marges de manoeuvre qui existent bel et bien au budget de la France (lire à ce sujet les "10+1 questions sur la dette à Liêm Hoang Ngoc" - éd. Michalon).
L'analyse des résultats, que vous trouverez ci-après, met le doigt sur... » read more ...
Tags: health, public services, welfare
Published Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 17:47
by
Editor
in European democracy & diversity (605 views and 0 comments)
Portuguese bloggers are active writing and informing their readers about the PES consultation process. These are good news for portuguese speaking-readers, as they will now be able to read in Camões' language what is going on!
Some suggestions: visit Luís Novaes Tito's blog, have a look at Carlos Manuel Castro's space, don't miss Celso Guedes' articles and read about the manifesto echos in loja de ideias.
Obrigada pela colaboração :)
Tags: blogosphere, citizens, manifesto
Published Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 11:51
by
Editor
in Save our planet (844 views and 0 comments)
What will the PES do to encourage a low carbon consumption
style in Europe?
How will Europe’s socialists and social democrats address the
challenge of climate change?
Where does the PES stand on nuclear energy?
These were some of the questions we received when we encouraged
Yourspace users to ask questions to Mona Sahlin, leader of the
Social Democratic Party of Sweden and responsible for the
manifesto theme Save our planet. Check out her answers in the video
below.
Tags: climate change, CO2, consumer, environment, fossil fuels, renewable energy
Published Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 11:34
by
Editor
in EU in the world (570 views and 1 comments)
Tags: globalization, trade
Published Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 13:19
by
Editor
In the spotlight (554 views and 2 comments)
Tags: blogosphere, citizens, manifesto
Published Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 11:31
by
carl0s
in New Social Europe (613 views and 2 comments)
So much rhetoric
seems to be aimed at the aspirational middle class. Isn't there a
distinct danger that we alienate those who aren't especially
interested in academic pursuits? Or those who, because of
temperament or necessity, prefer not to work in offices?
When we hear our "leftist" politicians declare that the welfare state is dead, we should expect that stable, safe and well-paid employment should be available to all - or prepare for some dire consequences! Anyone with a conception of history knows what happens without a welfare state and how inequalities in health and life are entrenched.
Whilst graduates from top universities and schools may account for a large proportion of our parties' leadership, this does not represent the population as a whole, in the UK, or anywhere around the EU!
So we need checks on the casualisation of labour across the EU and tight regulation of the employment agencies which have become so profitable over the last few years. Full rights for temporary workers from day one, and the extension of the "ECDL" concept to cover trades and semi-skilled occupations.
Human nature being what it is, the era of protection at work, in health or in school... has not ended.
Tags: employment, equality, welfare
Published Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 09:56
by
noelhatch
in European democracy & diversity (599 views and 0 comments)
We have a duty to invite,
inspire and involve all Social Democrats into shaping our
narrative, especially those excluded from political and civic
participation.
It needs to be worthwhile for them and make a difference in a way which is accessible. It needs to instil a sense of enthusiasm and hope, that by working with others towards this common endeavour, they can contribute to emancipating others by emancipating themselves.
European Social Democratic political parties are ideally placed
to build this consensus by:
* enabling everyone to shape a cross-European manifesto for the
good society so we can better connect with the public and
campaign in the political and social arena
* reaching out to those who share our values but not membership
of a political party into the progressive coalition
* devolving power to our party members so their everyday
experiences and connections into communities can inform our
parties and policies
* provide a flexible and accountable approach to European Social
Democratic renewal at all levels
* engaging people in a way which reconciles the tensions between
their interest in social issues and distrust of party politics
and enabling them to better experience democracy
Tags: activists, citizens, democracy, PES, political parties
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