Published Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 12:10
by
yoan.abiven 
in New Social Europe (1012 views and 2 comments)
Pour une
politique européenne commune de l’immigration!
- afin que la libre circulation dans les Etats de l’Union,
garantie aux migrants légalement installés, se fasse dans le
respect des droits fondamentaux et à égalité de droits avec tous
les résidents de l’Union,
- qui réponde aux intérêts économiques et démographiques de
l’Union
- qui accroisse son rayonnement à l’étranger.
Diagnostic
Les Etats européens, aux frontières intérieures désormais
effacées, confrontés à la nécessité d’une coopération renforcée
en matière d’immigration, doivent aller au-delà et construire une
politique commune d’immigration. Il serait catastrophique que
l’UE apparaisse comme une forteresse close entourée de hauts
murs.
Objectifs
La politique commune d’immigration devrait se fonder sur les
points suivants:
Garantir les droits fondamentaux aux migrants légalement
installés sur le territoire de... » read more ...
Published Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 10:26
by
carl0s
in New Social Europe (699 views and 0 comments)
I think we can identify four distinct "stages" where people make the most use of public services, particularly in regard to welfare and education services. They are not necessarily sequential. Firstly, from childhood to early adulthood, people need free-at-point-of-use education - its important that this is not only of academic quality, but also that the environment results in a decent formative experience. Secondly, families with a young child need a lot of support, from the birth through to free childcare. Thirdly, people with illness at any time in their lives should not be thrown back on the resources of the family, as the fear that this engenders will act to the detriment of general public health. And lastly, people who have finished work will need a future where they aren't worried about subsistence living. That way, younger people can look to the future with a degree of confidence.
If I'm stating the obvious here, then apologies. But for all four of these stages, there is no indication that private schemes or private insurance can adequately and securely provide for individuals. Private involvement at these times always involves public provision at some stage - for example, someone with health insurance always goes to their local hospital in an emergency. My belief is that public hospitals should not be charging their patients for care.
By combining health and social services... » read more ...
Tags: childcare, elderly, health, pensions, public services, welfare
Published Friday, November 23, 2007 at 16:54
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (824 views and 0 comments)
Tags: council, education, employment, equality, immigration
Published Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 17:32
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (797 views and 0 comments)
There are plenty of examples of the negative impact on society of certain kinds of hedge and private equity funds. These funds, many financed with investments from pension funds, are on a hunt for short-term profit – something which too often is at the expense of worker’s rights and the long-term development of the company invested in. Many hedge and private equity funds also pay very little tax and, because they finance company buy outs with huge accumulated debts, they pose a threat to financial stability.
This type of ‘unhealthy investment’ was the topic of today’s second plenary at the PES Council. There was broad agreement among the speakers at the podium that the unregulated behaviour of hedge and private equity funds are a serious problem which urgently needs to be dealt with – for the sake of both workers and companies.
One of the speakers, Democratic Congressman Barney Frank (Chairman of the US House Committee on Financial Services), had taken the trip during the American thanksgiving holiday, across the Atlantic to urge collaboration between the US and Europe.
"If the US and Europe do not coordinate our efforts we will never be able to tackle the problem of hedge and private equity funds. The funds will... » read more ...
Tags: council, equality, investment, wages
Published Friday, November 16, 2007 at 10:07
by
joelld
in New Social Europe (877 views and 0 comments)
As an observer
organisation, Rainbow Rose will be present at the PES Council. This year, Rodrigo Martin Galan, from
the "Grupo LGTB del PSOE" (Spain), will be our delegate. Other
Rainbow Rose activists coming from the Netherlands, Estonia and
France will be present in Sofia. PES activists, MEPs, and party
leaders will be welcome at our stand.
Rainbow Rose will use this opportunity to communicate on our contribution to the consultation on the PES 2009 Manifesto. To this day, the contribution has already received the support of several MEPs. We will also explain our networking activities and our political positions at a fringe meeting on Friday, November 23. We believe it's important to convince all socialists that equality, diversity and secularism, as they have always been at the heart of the social-democratic movements, justify total commitment from our national and European parties.
Last, but not least, Rainbow Rose aims at maintaining a contact with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists in Europe. That's the reason why intend to... » read more ...
Tags: council, diversity, equality, gay, LGBT, PES
File:
R.ROSE_CONTRIBUTION_2009_MANIFESTO.pdf
Published Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 16:10
by
joelld
in New Social Europe (976 views and 5 comments)
The PES discussion paper on "New Social Europe" presents a comprehensive
approach to social policy in Europe. We social democrats are
convinced that all the answers to all the problems of European
citizens in their work life and their social life are part of the
same social policy concept. For this reason, Rainbow
Rose, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender network of
the PES, is glad to see that inequalities among workers are
mentioned in the discussion papers, as well as "the social
security rights of employees, the self-employed and their
families." We believe that addressing these problems is
necessary to build the inclusive society we want, with equal
rights and duties for all.
That's why, at the side of gender inequality, which is explicitly and rightly mentioned, we would like to make sure that all other grounds for discriminations are also addressed by the PES manifesto. We would like to see homophobia and transphobia mentioned explicitly. We think it is important that the manifesto stresses that gays, lesbians and transgender should have the same rights as all other citizens to be protected... » read more ...
Tags: discrimination, diversity, equality, gay, LGBT, public services, welfare
File:
PES Group statement on the outcome of the conference on the year of equal opportunities.pdf
Published Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 14:27
by
anqa
in New Social Europe (798 views and 0 comments)
Another visit to the office of Marek Siwiec, Vice-President of the European Parliament and member of SLD in Poland. Among other things he raises the question of how we can make the vision of New Social Europe a reality in all EU countries.
How do you think we can assure high social standards in both new and old member states?
Tags: education, employment, equality, wages, welfare
Published Monday, November 12, 2007 at 15:27
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (676 views and 0 comments)
Tags: elderly, equality, immigration, wages, welfare
Published Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 23:28
by
Sortir de l'Impasse
in New Social Europe (939 views and 1 comments)
The French PES activists propose a discussion on the policies that we will have to come up with to protect our European industry and services in an increasingly globalized world. This subject is interesting, not because socialists are sometimes perceived as advocates of “economic patriotism” (which may be true), but because of the recent examples of large sovereign funds that have the wealth to purchase industrial assets in Europe.
A few years ago, European and American companies were the sole ones “buying the world”, for example investing in emerging countries, buying shares of privatized companies (mainly in Africa) or entering a joint-venture scheme (for instance in China).
A couple of days ago, we discovered through a survey run by Standard Chartered and cited by the Financial Times, that sovereign funds hold huge amounts of money. These amounts are estimated at around $2,200bn (i.e. around the French annual GDP) and have been accumulated by states like China, Norwegian, Abu Dhabi, … coming either from oil exports or from current-account surpluses.
... » read more ...Tags: globalization, solidarity
Published Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 20:49
by
jonathanbishop
in New Social Europe (828 views and 1 comments)
Increasingly large
companies are saying that manufacturing plants are not making
enough profit and are inefficient. They give these as reasons to
close plants and relocate the jobs. This is affecting large
numbers of workers who are working their hardest for these profit
greedy enterprises who have disregard for social responsibility.
This is not sustainable, as the drive for greater integration means that workers will have a decent standard of living across the EU and these moves by large companies are causing instability in the common market.
The Acquired Rights Directive has given workers rights to have their contracts transferred when the company they are working for has been bought by another. The same legal base could be used to give workers who are going to lose their jobs because of a company closing the plant they work in the right to take over the plant by acquiring all the machinery and other equipment in a worker buyout to form for example a workers' co-operative.
Tags: employment, welfare, workers
Published Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 10:39
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (656 views and 0 comments)
Tags: education, equality, health, public services, welfare
Published Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 15:50
by
anqa
in New Social Europe (636 views and 0 comments)
Vice-President of the European Parliament Marek Siwiec and President of PES Women Zita Gurmai are in Madrid and speak about the preparation of the PES Manifesto, the different issues to be discussed in it and the upcoming European elections in 2009.
Tags: childcare, diversity, environment, manifesto, PES
Published Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 12:20
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (628 views and 0 comments)
Here is another interview from last week's conference about Decent Work. This time we have talked to Josep Borrell, former president of the European Parliament and president of the Global Progressive Forum.
What do you think socialists and social democrats should do to ensure decent working conditions - both for people in Europe and in the rest of the world?
Find more interviews from the conference at our YouTube channel, among others we have talked to Guy Ryder from the International Trade Union Confederation and Maria João Rodrigues, adviser for the Portuguese EU Presidency.
Tags: employment, equality, wages
Published Monday, November 5, 2007 at 14:23
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (643 views and 0 comments)
We talked to José Vieira da Silva, Minister of Labour in Portugal, at last week's conference about Decent Work in Lisbon.
Published Monday, November 5, 2007 at 11:29
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (908 views and 1 comments)
Thanks to Labour MEPs Richard
Corbett and Linda McAvan for dedicating an hour of their
Yorkshire Regional Policy Forum to a discussion on the PES
manifesto.
Workers rights, a stronger commitment to a fair living wage, and
equality in the workplace were among the issues raised by the
audience alongside many questions about how the PES manifesto2009
consultation would work.
The consultation was welcomed by former MEP David Bowe who
suggested that the consultation should have add a new theme of
‘making Europe work’ (i.e. implementing all EU rules properly in
all countries). Rounding off the discussion was MP and former
Europe Minister Dennis McShane who told the meeting that Europe
was a ‘wedge’ issue between Labour and the increasingly
isolationist conservatives.
The meeting, which took place on November 3rd in Sheffield, also
featured a workshop on ‘An Environmental Union: the EU and
climate change’.
Tags: employment, equality, wages, welfare
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