Yesterday Flemish
social democrats concluded their debate on the PES manifesto. Over
the last month Sp.a, the Flemish social democratic party, has hosted
four debates on the themes of the PES manifesto consultation –
yesterday evening was the closing event, a final discussion of
common priorities for the 2009 elections.
Among other things the evening featured testing of ‘carbon footprints’,
videos, debates with NGOs, labour unions and politicians, and
speeches by Caroline Gennez, leader of the Sp.a, and Poul Nyrup
Rasmussen, PES President.
See more pictures from the evening in Brussels hereread more
On 26 April Bertrand
Delanoë, newly re-elected Mayor of Paris, visited London to support
Ken Livingstone from Labour in the elections for Mayor of London.
Read a full report and see more pictures on the homepage of Compass Youth.
read more
Today, European Union is an economic reality but not a political
one because the weight of European Institutions in the
international scene is very frail. This situation is not very
good for the people who believe that economic liberalism is too
strong in the whole world thanks to the globalization phenomenon.
Social globalization is not so strong as the economical one and
this is a real problem for the “socialist family” since the
values of socialism are based on a social way of thinking.
That is the reason because the European Socialists should work to
build a very strong Party of European Socialists. We have to
compensate for the excessive power of economic liberalism with a
new model of social protection. European Union should take enough
power to become one of the main international players (such as
the United States, the International Monetary Fund, the World
Bank, Japan, etc.) with real capacity of influence in the
“international social agenda”. Today, decisions should be taken
in a global way; socialists should bring together all their
resources to push for a change in the European Institutions, and
ways of acting of the European Union. Socialism must become
global, as global as liberalism, otherwise our main institution
(welfare state) will disappear.
After an election, the democratic process goes on with the set up
of a government, which then defines a project for the future, and
more concretely appoints its ministers. If the present Spanish
government can be called ‘pink’ because it has 9 women and 8 men,
as Berlusconi recently pointed out (see The Times and The Independent), then the rest of EU
governments could be called ‘blue’. In this respect, there are no
differences between the developed countries of the Western World
and developing countries, whatever their ideologies and history.
For instance, the presence European Commission has only 9 women out
of the 27 commissioners. The colour ‘blue’ therefore seems to be a
common trait that no-one should boast about.
But all this would be just another subjective comment if women
were not constantly forced to prove themselves and if they were
not there merely out of a simple strategy of political marketing.
In addition, women must also prove their worth and show that they
are not just puppets. In our society, in most cases, women must
adjust...
Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 10:12
by
markus.austria
in EU in the world (166 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 face the challenge of economic (and social!) prosperity in...
read more
This week Esteban Romero from Spain will be blogging on
Yourspace. Esteban is 29 years old and lives in Granada where
works as an assistant professor at the local university. He
committed to the PES manifesto campaign last year while he has
doing a traineeship in the European Commission. Currently he is
coordinating a Spanish-language blog about the PES
manifesto.
Next to Esteban a number of other PES activists from the 'Manifiesto
2009' blog team will be sharing their ideas on Yourspace. So
this week you get the chance to experience several voices from
Spain!
This week Yourspace welcomes Isabella Frenning from Denmark.
Isabella is 28 years old and lives in Copenhagen where she studies
political science. Isabella is former Vice-President of the
Danish
Social Democratic Youth and active in the organization since
2001. Further, she is one of the driving forces behind the Danish
network of PES
activists.
According to Isabella she has felt a European since she was nine
years old. Something which she thinks is connected to the fact that
the Berlin wall fell on her birthday that year.
Published Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 11:48
by
Salvador E. Becker
in New Social Europe (287 views and 1 comments)
Within the last weeks, a working group of the regional SPD in Berlin,
discussed and published 8 building blocks to put the PES manifesto debate
on a more concrete level. Following the analysis of the
European element in the different national programmes, we tried to
focus on some 8 main topics, of which we were sure, that there
should be consensus amongst Europe's socialist and social
democratic parties.
Our idea was, that if it wouldn't be possible to agree on a PES
manifesto as a whole, it should at least be possible to find some
key ideas to put in the different national programms for the
European elcections in next year: at the last election in 2004 not
even the national programme became very popular in the German
public... Which is why we hope, that a more discussed and therefore
implemented manifesto in all EU member states would not only gain
more success in the elections itself, it could in addition help to
give the citizens of Europe a better idea of socialist or social
democratic policy in an for europe!
On 15 April, Poul
Nyrup Rasmussen, PES President, met with French PES activists in Paris. Invited by Patrick Bloche,
first secretary of Paris Federation and mayor of the 11th district,
many activists took part in a succesful meeting, where the
activists had the opportunity to discuss the content of the PES
manifesto for the 2009 European elections.
Fighting discrimination by promoting understanding and
tolerance
As socialists and social democrats, participants agree that the PES
should make the promotion of tolerance one of its key priorities,
by campaigning and by enforcing legislation on the matter. Some
underline this as a way of countering stereotypes on discriminated
groups.
Promoting European citizenship and identity
Participants in the debate have also made a number of specific
proposals to promote European citizenship and identity. Many
highlight that politicians and the media should take a greater role
in better talking and reporting on Europe; the
‘abuse’ of Europe for national or personal
purposes is strongly criticized in the debate. For Scandinavian PES activists,...
read more
For the coming days Brian
Booth, Belgium, will give his input for the PES manifesto.
Brian is 29 years old and holds a MA in Medieval History from the
Université Libre de Bruxelles. Living in Brussels, where he works
as a political advisor to the deputy mayor in charge for public
properties, Brian is a long time member of the Mouvement des Jeunes
Socialistes and is currently ECOSY Vice-President with a portfolio for
equality, justice and solidarity.
Les socialistes français, très pris par les élections municipales
qui se sont tenues les 9 et 16 mars, se mobilisent pour le
Manifeste du PSE.
Dans cette optique, une journée complète de travail à Bruxelles a
été organisée sur les changements opérés au sein du PSE depuis
2004 et le Conseil de Bruxelles, la novation introduite avec les
militants du PSE et surtout l'élaboration du Manifeste 2009.
La plupart des Secrétaires fédéraux Europe et/ou International
ainsi que les Premiers Secrétaires fédéraux d'une trentaine de
fédérations présents ont bien saisi l'enjeu que représente le
Manifeste. Evidemment, la campagne référendaire de 2005 est
encore dans les têtes mais dans l'ensemble c'est pour mieux la
dépasser. L'instrument essentiel pour réaliser ce dépassement
étant la consultation des adhérents.
Autre enseignement tiré des dernières élections européennes de
2004, réussir la politisation de la campagne sur un plan
européen, notamment en mettant en avant 5-6 mesures communes.
Henning Meyer, Head of European Programme for
the Global
Policy Institute, kicked off the debate on New Social Europe in London on 11
March 2008 by warning that if certain issues aren’t currently
reflected within the debate, such as economic globalisation, they
become accepted as givens. He then put to the floor what we mean
when we talk about social Europe. There are different applications
of the social model, but there seems to be a consensus on some key
elements:
a responsive political economy
free and compulsory education
active protection of environment
robust welfare state
limitation of inequality
However, the economic layers of governance have been eroded by
globalisation. There is an increased pressure on costs. If we
debate the reform of the European social model, we need to debate
the reform of globalisation. Economic globalisation increases
within and between countries.
How can we develop a politics of international
redistribution?
Henning proposed that we needed a politics of national and
international redistribution - we need to explore a global social
politics. This includes:
reforming how we measure the gross domestic product. We need
to...
Work has been made insecure, the social wage has been reduced and
there has been a steep decline in bargaining power from workers.
Communities have been dismantled, workers distanced from their
employers or contractors. There has been a very deliberate policy
to push back the gains of the workers, often by stealth.
Expectations have been constantly lowered to the extent that our
goal becomes not how we can make it better, but how can we
prevent it being that bad. How can you organise when you don’t
know who you’re actually working for? The trade unions struggle
with bargaining, sometimes too conservative in their approach.
The game has changed – we need to...
Another speaker at the debate on New Social Europe in London was
Michael Walsh, Research Director for the trade union Community. He
introduced his organization
as the only union in the UK that has spoken up for the European
Union, but often the message doesn’t get across, such as when we
talk about "social dialogue". The EU record doesn’t compare
favourably with the British record. Free markets don’t work. We
need to disentangle the European dimension from national politics;
otherwise people will bash Europe in order to bash the government.
Great social victories have been attributable to the European
Union, especially on equality. Michael proposed that we need to:
disentangle the European dimension from national politics,
otherwise people will bash Europe in order to bash their national
government
shouldn't lose faith in our basic beliefts - we should
prepared to intervene in favour of a more social Europe
go in confidently and boldly about intervening and imposing a
degree of accountability
build coalitions across society and intensify European
co-operation
Europe is unique in the way it tries to combine a free market
economy with social justice. But things are changing with
globalization and our ageing society. Conservatives say we can no
longer afford high standards of social and environmental
protection. We say our welfare states are our strength, that a
society in which everyone can participate, contribute and benefit
will be a strong and prosperous society. We say our welfare states
must be renewed - not dismantled: reformed to meet new challenges,
not taken apart.
The PES agreed on 10 Principles for a New Social Europe at our Congress
at the end of 2006. But what should be our priorities for 2009-14?
What should be done at the European level in the years ahead?
Labour Movement for Europe launched a debate on the New Social
Europe theme of the PES manifesto consultation with a range of
exciting speakers:
Published Monday, March 31, 2008 at 11:55
by
cafeneaua.politica
in Save our planet (333 views and 0 comments)
Sign this petition for promoting in Romania and Europe
the healthy life, increasing the use of bicycles, and in this way
for reducing the locals pollution that generate a global worming
amount. Signing this petition you agreed to promote a law
initiative that will force the all Romanian and European local
administrations to generate special places on auto roads from
inside of the towns and communes in the only bicyclist’s
advantage.
Please forward this announcement to yours friends!
In Romanian:
Va invit sa semnati o petitie in favoarea unei initiative legislative in
Romania si Europa ce sa promoveze concret prezervarea calitatii
mediului.
Va rog sa promovati acest mesaj in cercurile de apropiati in
logica unui efort comun pentru un interes comun!
The Eurosocialists in Geneva have also sent in their
ideas for the PES manifesto - read the full document here. The group proposes the following four
objectives for the EU in the world theme:
Eliminating poverty, promoting decent work and respecting
human rights
Towards more equitable and effective taxation (at all levels)
Towards better global governance
Enhancing our security in the framework of NATO and the
European Neighbourhood Policy
Do you have any ideas to add? Leave a comment and debate with
Eurosocialists Geneva!
A group of German PES activists are the first to send in a paper
with ideas for the PES manifesto. Read the German contribution in the documents section of
Yourspace.
The EU working group from the SPD in Berlin proposes eight 'building
blocks' for the PES manifesto:
Thanks to Jon Worth for his proposals to how Europe’s socialist
and social democratic parties can campaign together in the 2009
elections.
My dream would be to have five events during the election campaign
where people from different European cities go out on the street
and campaign at the same time. It would be amazing to see PES
activists in for example London, Paris and Budapest gather in front
of the local town hall at the exact same day time. Such events
would have great symbolic value.
On the content side I invite all PES activists and national parties
to come up with five great proposals for the PES manifesto. I call
these proposals flowers – we need five flowers that Europe’s
socialist and social democrat parties can use in their campaigns.
These should not be technical proposals, but progressive ideas that
people can relate to. I encourage all readers to use their
imagination and give the PES their suggestions for the five
flowers. Let us come up with 1000 flowers and select the best ones
for the PES manifesto.
Post cards from the PES President
This week Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of European
Socialists, comments on some of the most popular...read more
Prioritisation of human rights and democracy in the world.
This area of prioritisation must affect political support and
trade conditions in countries and areas globally. Workers rights
and women’s rights must be included as well. EU must show
clearly, that there is a difference in the treatment of countries
and areas, where democracy and human rights are respected.
Economic, climate and social sustainability We need to give
technological support, build states, and give right to energy to
the citizens. All people should further have a right to
education. All of this is to be implemented with a view to
sustainability.
Human ressources Knowledge sharing, education, and
sensitivity to brain drain must be thought into EU global policy.
The workshop was introduced by Yildiz Akdogan, member of the Danish
Parliament. She presented her thoughts on the dilemmas posed by our
belief in democratic institutions governing by majority decisions
while seeking to protect the civil and human rights of individuals
as well as groups to live their life respecting their cultural
heritage and personal life-choices.
Our perception of modern society should include a compromise
between individual and collective needs, strengthening democratic
influence on European institutions while securing minority rights.
The workshop participants believed that our family of political
parties are the right actors to build this alliance, since our
concept of human life and potential indeed always has been a much
broader one than those of the right wing.
Therefore, embracing and encouraging European diversity might
actually be the key to enabling the common European identity we
want the European citizens to feel part of. Instead of...
read more
Published Friday, March 14, 2008 at 11:48
by
AnneSofie
in Save our planet (393 views and 1 comments)
Scandinavian
PES
activistsmet in the village of Jørlunde, located on the
island of Zealand, Denmark on March 1st and 2nd 2008 to discuss
European democracy, politics and the PES manifesto.
Over sometimes heated discussions, the 80 participants agreed on
a number is issues, which we feel must be included in the PES
manifesto. Here is our suggestions for the theme 'Save our
planet':
Within the international community, the EU must be the leader
in the struggle for advances within energy and climate change.
All member states must implement radical changes in their energy
and climate policies. Therefore it is necessary to remove the
trade in CO2 quotas, because it constitutes a real stumbling
block for action and for the realisation of change, which will
have an effect.
It is not enough with state intervention and cooperation. The
global warming and the threat from the changes to our climate
must be fought at all levels of society. The citizens must get
actively involved. It demands a change of attitude for each
citizen. The social democrats in Denmarkcan for instance
elaborate a set of tools, which makes the...
Among this morning’s
activities at the Danish PES manifesto conference was a workshop about
campaigns and cooperation in Europe – the participants discussed
how Europe’s social democrats can work together on common
campaign initiatives in the next European elections. There were
plenty of ideas – to mention a few:
Joint actions where PES activist groups in different cities
coordinate events that will take place at the same date and
time. Such coordinated actions should include internet activity
(this site could be an excellent tool for this!) that can
‘bind’ the different happenings together
Make a list of national contact persons that PES activists
can contact if they go on holiday and want to meet with other
local social democrats at their destination
The message about PES activists and a common campaign in 2009
should spread to the local level – social democrats outside
Europe’s big cities should also be invited to take part in PES
activist events and campaigns
It could be interesting to learn about the traditions of
social democrats in other countries. In Denmark, for example, we
have a strong tradition for...
This weekend stands a
good chance at becoming a turning point for the PES activists movement!
I’m in a small village called ‘Jørlunde’ in Denmark - it’s about
one hour by train from Copenhagen. Small place, big thoughts!
Together with 80 other social democrats I’m attending a conference
on Europe and the PES manifesto. What’s extraordinary about this
event is that it gathers social democrats from three Nordic
countries (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) – and tomorrow we will
debate the possibilities for cooperation between Nordic PES
activists. How can Nordic social democrats help each other out when
we start campaigning for the 2009 European elections?
The conference is organized by the Danish Social
Democrats and attended by members of the Swedish and Norwegian
parties - among these Eric Sundström, former blogger of the week on
Yourspace. Actually he is about to begin his presentation on
European democracy in a few minutes…
Right now we are debating Turkey and the EU – a discussion
triggered by a very interesting presentation by Anne Mette...
read more
This week Yourspace welcomes Victor Negrescu, national
coordinator of PES
activists Romania and a figure in the Romanian left-wing NGO
sector. On his blog (written in Romanian) Victor already adresses
the PES manifesto and other European debates which concern
Romania. Victor can be reached via mail at victor.negrescu
(at) pes dot ro.
As your specially invited blogger this week, I must first say
that I am very honored. And since I try to keep two blogs as it
is (in English here and in Swedish here), I have learnt that
the best blog posts are not too long. But since I have your
attention now, we must be serious to start with.
In the autumn of 1993, I attended my first seminar at university
level. I had registered for a course in economic history at
Stockholm University, a decision I had started to regret right
before the course started. The summer of 1993 had been great. I
was in love with music (rock’n’roll, that is),
literature (Jack Kerouac, that summer) and
politics (social democracy, of course. But with
a more radical socialist twist, in those days).
When autumn arrived, I didn’t want to study economic history. It
sounded too... serious. I tried to swap for literature, but
thanks to the rigid rules at Stockholm University, I had to stick
to the original plan.
At the first seminar in economic history, our very old and
brilliant professor (who taught his last semester that year),
rose from his chair and wrote on word on the chalkboard:
At last month's PES Council the Yourspace team presented a series of
videos with statements from PES activists and other socialists who told
us their priorities for the PES manifesto. Here's one of
them:
Yesterday Flemish
social democrats concluded their debate on the PES manifesto. Over
the last month Sp.a, the Flemish social democratic party, has hosted
four debates on the themes of the PES manifesto consultation –
yesterday evening was the closing event, a final discussion of
common priorities for the 2009 elections.
On 26 April Bertrand
Delanoë, newly re-elected Mayor of Paris, visited London to support
Ken Livingstone from Labour in the elections for Mayor of London.
Read a full report and see more pictures on the homepage of Compass Youth.
read more
PES manifesto consultation.pdf
Thanks a lot to
Isabella Frenning for being last week's
blogger!
Thanks to Brian
Booth for blogging on Yourspace last week!
On 15 April, Poul
Nyrup Rasmussen, PES President, met with French PES activists in Paris. Invited by Patrick Bloche,
first secretary of Paris Federation and mayor of the 11th district,
many activists took part in a succesful meeting, where the
activists had the opportunity to discuss the content of the PES
manifesto for the 2009 European elections.
Sign this petition for promoting in Romania and Europe
the healthy life, increasing the use of bicycles, and in this way
for reducing the locals pollution that generate a global worming
amount. Signing this petition you agreed to promote a law
initiative that will force the all Romanian and European local
administrations to generate special places on auto roads from
inside of the towns and communes in the only bicyclist’s
advantage.
Thanks to Jon Worth for his proposals to how Europe’s socialist
and social democratic parties can campaign together in the 2009
elections.
The manifesto theme
'EU in the
world' was also on the agenda when PES activists from Denmark, Sweden and Norway met in
Jørlunde, Denmark on March 1st and 2nd. Here are a few
conclusions from this dedicated discussion group:
Among the activities
of the gathering of Scandinavian PES activists in Jørlunde,
Denmark, was a discussion group on the PES manifesto theme 'European democracy and diversity':
Scandinavian
PES
activists met in the village of Jørlunde, located on the
island of Zealand, Denmark on March 1st and 2nd 2008 to discuss
European democracy, politics and the PES manifesto.
Among this morning’s
activities at the Danish PES manifesto conference was a workshop about
campaigns and cooperation in Europe – the participants discussed
how Europe’s social democrats can work together on common
campaign initiatives in the next European elections. There were
plenty of ideas – to mention a few:
This weekend stands a
good chance at becoming a turning point for the PES activists movement!
Thanks to Jon Worth for
blogging on Yourspace last week!
I haven’t seen any
news coverage of last week's 
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