Blogposts by Tag: aid

  • Ania Skrzypek: Decent work, decent life - decent policies to deliver!

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    Rating: 4.5/5 with 8 votes

    Published Friday, March 28, 2008 at 15:30
    by ania_skrzypek Join PES activists 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...

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    Tags: aid, blogger of the week, decent work, fair trade, globalization, poverty, solidarity


  • PES President: Progressive proposal from Spanish socialists

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    Rating: 4/5 with 4 votes

    Published Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 10:55
    by Poul_Nyrup_Rasmussen Join PES activists 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!

    There are many reasons to why I have great respect for PSOE. The party’s recent proposal on how to fight brain drain is very progressive. This idea is an inspiration for all Europe’s socialist parties, and I hope it will also be considered by the European Commissioner for Development.

    When I see how many doctors and engineers migrate from developing countries to the European Union it seems right to repay by financing the education and training of new professionals in their home countries. PSOE’s idea is a very pragmatic proposal and definitely something which we should consider for our common 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 posts on Yourspace. This is the fourth of six post cards from the PES President.
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    Tags: aid, education, president


  • Europe must embrace responsible lending practices to developing nations

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    Rating: 4/5 with 3 votes

    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.

    Many Western creditor countries have also been quick to point the finger at newer lenders, such as China, India, Brazil and Venezuela arguing that these countries are lending irresponsibly to the poorest nations and do not care about human rights or environmental protection in the activities they finance. What should the EU do - and stand for - in such circumstances?

    It would be easy for European lenders - both governments and private banks - to initiate a 'race to the bottom' arguing that Europe's financiers need to compete for business in the developing world and therefore cannot adhere to standards on transparency or social and environmental protection. Instead, the EU must seize the opportunity to raise the bar much higher and make the finance it offers of excellent quality. It is in this spirit that the European Network on Debt and Development... read more

    Tags: Africa, aid, development, poverty

    File: Responsible_Financing_Charter_report.pdf, Responsible_Financing_Charter.pdf


  • Mini planet - huge problems

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    Rating: 5/5 with 4 votes

    Published Friday, January 11, 2008 at 12:55
    by fairness Join PES activists in EU in the world (740 views and 2 comments)

    This video has been going around the internet for a while. The idea is to consider how the world’s ‘goods’ would be distributed if we had a ‘miniature earth’ with only 100 people on the planet. It is really an interesting way of presenting problems such as poverty, AIDS and illiteracy.



    Such a video makes you feel privileged - privileged to be a ‘rich’ European who doesn’t have to worry about lack of water or children dying of AIDS. At the same time it’s frustrating – frustrating to be reminded of how far we are away from social justice.

    What should the EU do to ensure a more fair distribution of the world’s goods? Posing this question will not give me any points for originality, but it’s certainly essential to debate. Both on miniature and ‘real’ earth there is a long way to go before we can speak of social justice.

    At the same time we should not forget that social injustice prospers in Europe as well. The obvious case is the huge gap between Western and... read more

    Tags: aid, AIDS, human rights, poverty, solidarity


  • PES Council: How do we best promote sustainable peace?

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    Rating: 4.5/5 with 6 votes

    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

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    Tags: aid, China, council, peace, trade


  • More global responsibility, please!

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    Rating: 3/5 with 2 votes

    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.

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    Tags: aid, conflict, defence, development, globalization, human rights, peace, poverty, security


  • Development policy: a hard nut to crack

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    Rating: 5/5 with 1 votes

    Published Friday, October 5, 2007 at 16:05
    by Editor in EU in the world (995 views and 2 comments)

    Minimum wagesWe 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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    Tags: aid, development, fair trade, human rights, solidarity