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 that I want you to bother everyday? Yes, I do! We must...
read morePublished Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 10:55
by
Poul_Nyrup_Rasmussen
in EU in the world (305 views and 0 comments)
First of all:
congratulations to the Spanish socialist party, PSOE, for winning the
national elections in Spain!Published Friday, February 8, 2008 at 10:47
by
Gail Hurley
in EU in the world (464 views and 0 comments)
The Party of European
Socialists is asking citizens what Europe should stand for in the
world, and how it can promote democracy, human rights and
sustainable development. Many policy-makers in developed countries
are currently talking about 'responsible lending' to developing
countries. This follows recent rounds of debt cancellation for the
poorest countries and fears that these very same countries will
quickly re-accumulate unpayable debt all over again.Published Friday, January 11, 2008 at 12:55
by
fairness
in EU in the world (740 views and 2 comments)
Published Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 17:09
by
Editor
in EU in the world (538 views and 0 comments)
The first plenary
debate, right after the opening of the PES Council, was dedicated to
international politics. The debate entitled "The EU on the
international scene; Promoting sustainable peace’" was chaired by
the Katrin Saks, Member of the European Parliament from Estonia,
and was filled with lively interventions and contributions.
"It’s an important challenge for us as socialists and social
democrats to apply our values in the 21st century," said Espen
Barth Eide, Secretary of State for Defense in Norway, when he
presented a recent report by the PES on the international scene
and sustainable peace.
According to him effective multilateralism is a fundamental tool
and has to be focused on the creation of other instruments for
changes. The main objective of socialists and social democrats
should be to bring the advantages of an interdependent world to
citizens in many different parts of the world. For example
through the European Security Defense Policy, or via humanitarian
aid and health policies, trade policy or external relations with
countries such as China and India.
The discussion tackled how socialists and social democrats can
reach their objectives - to this
Published Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 10:32
by
Editor
in EU in the world (757 views and 0 comments)
Almost 90 percent of Europeans want the European Union to play a bigger role globally, according to a recent poll by the US German Marshall Fund. euobserver.com repeat that citizens call for more money to developmental aid (84 %), the use of trade to influence other countries (74 %) and sending troops for peace-keeping missions (68 %).
Committing troops to combat missions is near the bottom of the list. Only 20 percent of Europeans thinks combat operations should be EU’s responsibility.
In contrast to the clear-cut conclusions on global responsibility
the question about collaboration with the US splits Europe in
two: a little more than half, 53 percent, feels that the EU
should cooperate closer with Washington in dealing with global
threats, whereas 43 percent prefers Europe to address threats
independently.
The survey included about 13.000 people of 12 nationalities:
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the UK.
Published Friday, October 5, 2007 at 16:05
by
Editor
in EU in the world (995 views and 2 comments)
We
Socialists are traditionally very interested in development –
supporting poorer and relatively newly independent countries to
become more prosperous, more sustainable, more democratic. But
genuinely good development polices are very hard to forge and
even harder to implement.
One problem is that it is very broad as a concept – and so many different policies come into play. Different EU countries have also had different approaches and interests so creating an EU framework for development has not been straightforward.
Today EU trade policy, agricultural policy, energy policies, the EU’s willingness to engage in peace missions, the EU’s decisions on debt cancellation, the extent it is willing to take action in support of democracy and human rights, its funding and support for AIDS, environmental sustainability, humanitarian relief, immigration policies all have an impact on development. All of these issues, and no doubt many more, should be covered in one EU development policy.
Everyone agrees that these policies should be ‘coherent’ – that one policy does not to contradict undermine the other, but instead should be ‘integrated’. In short we want the sum of different EU policies to add up to one clear and effective policy that supports...
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