S’inspirer de soixante
années d’expérience de la construction européenne pour avancer un
nécessaire projet d’Union Méditerranéenne est, à première vue, une
idée excellente. Vigilance pourtant au moment de manipuler le
vocabulaire et les méthodes de la success story européenne.
L’Europe des pères fondateurs ne se résume ni à quelque technique
habile, ni à quelques mots magiques, pas plus qu'à des partenariats
économiques tous azimuts. Elle oblige génétiquement à un partage de
souveraineté sur ce qui fait mal. L’Europe politique n’est
pas née seulement et durablement des moyens financiers offerts par
le plan Marshall. Elle s’est imposée dans le sillage d’un geste
politique historique, celui de la déclaration Schuman. Or, cette
initiative allait bien au-delà du champ économique. Il ne
s’agissait pas d’annoncer la restauration du théâtre de Bayreuth
avec des prêts bonifiés ! A cette époque, on voyait plus loin, on
visait plus haut. On confiait à une autorité politique nouvelle ce
qui avait servi à tant faire couler le sang des...
read 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
Non-British EU citizens living in London have the right to vote in
elections for the Mayor of London on 1. May 2008! Support Ken
Livingstone, Labour UK, as Mayor of London!
All Europeans are invited to sign the support statement of Labour
Movement for Europe here. You can also support Ken Livingstone on
Facebook: Join the group or become a fan.
read more
Once in a while we experience something that either changes the way
we see the world or broadens our view of it. The most significant
events do both.
I had one of these experiences on my ninth birthday; I know that
millions of others did too. My birthday is the 9th of
November…Admittedly, the massive importance of the fall of the Berlin Wall probably only dawned on
me a few days later, when my spontaneous bitterness of being
completely ignored by my family in favor of the much more
interesting TV-news slowly started to fade. To this very
day I’m actually still trying to figure out what that specific
event has really meant to all of us. I guess many of us still
struggle with that question. But since social development is
dynamic rather than linear or static, I guess the impact of that
event is ever changing. (Being a student of the political sciences,
I must admit I’d sometimes wish there could just be a logic and
simple answer to these questions like in the mathematical sciences
- but of course the complexity is also part of the beauty, no?)
Even in more recent times this significant event on a cold November
night in Berlin is vigorously read more
Lionel Jospin, former Prime Minister of France, has his say in the
PES manifesto consultation. Watch the video interview and find out
more about his ideas:
Do you agree with Lionel Jospin's suggestions?
read more
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
Social
Platform brings together more than forty European
non-governmental organisations, federations and networks which are
working to build an inclusive society. Fintan Farrell, President of
Social Platform, gives the highlights of Social Platform's ideas
for the PES manifesto:
In the last time I have participated in some interesting left
civil society and social democrat debates, under the PES
Activists auspices at Oradea and Cluj-Napoca in Romania. The
quality of the subjects and on the other hand of the speakers and
listeners prove again that “the left” has a very good future in
Romania and probably in Europe.
1. The Oradea debate subject:
”Parliamentary bureau - The feed-back connection with
citizens”
2. The Cluj-Napoca debate subjects:
”Is the Romania a success example for different cultures
joining?”
I write rarely about Poland – as a Secretary General of a
European Organization. But as I have also never written a blog
before I have decided to make an exception. Especially that the
issue below remains at the heart of the manifesto debate on
New
Social Europe and “how to reach a New Social Europe for
everyone and everywhere?"
There are few Easter traditions Polish cultivated up till today.
One of them is the tradition of hand-painted Eggs, and another of
“Wet Monday” when Polish are sprinkling water on one another. The
wetter you get, the more popular you are – says ancient
tradition. Both customs seem to have reached a new political
dimension; just before Easter Polish got their very own “Kinder
Surprise” hand-made by the Kaczynski Brothers colored in national
white and red, indicating the popularity to wash away in a
Niagara Falls of words like ‘never’, ‘scandal’,
‘forever’ the Lisbon Treaty.
Polish representatives, negotiating the Lisbon Treaty, made a lot
of promises in the media. As a nation, educated in school by
romantic literature, we like symbols underlined by a little
drama. This is why it is in our political DNA to tear our clothes
apart and claim that ‘we will die if…’ as in the
negotiations; ‘…the Ioannina...
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
How can we spark a
greater interest in EU politics? Lolomodrego asked this question some time ago and it
is a good one.
In my opinion the answer is to make political choices more visible.
We need to give Europe’s citizens a clear choice between a red
Europe and a blue Europe. We should offer them an ‘aha experience’
and make it obvious to them that what goes on in the European
Parliament is similar to the political fight in national
parliaments: it is a choice between the Party of European
Socialists and Europe’s assorted conservatives, liberals and
extremists.
Another answer is that we need to make optimum use of the Internet
as a meeting place for progressives. Maybe we cannot afford to
travel and meet in real life, but we can meet and debate on the
Internet. Grassroots in the US are famous for their skilled use of
the Internet – if they can do it, we can do it! My plea to you is
this: go to Yourspace, let us meet here – and invite your
progressive friends. This way we can get together, debate and
mobilize for the upcoming elections. Post cards from the PES
President
This week Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of
European...read more
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
Although everyone talks about increasing the ethnic involvement
but no one has done a consultation within the ethnic community.
Being from the ethnic background I know people feel that it is no
point coming forward because sometimes they are not made to feel
that it is easy to get involved. I think you need an employed
ambassador at grass root level who would promote Europe and the
benefits in ethnic minority. What you don't need is another high
directorate position to write the policy on how to involve the
ethnic people. They are the best people to tell you. If someone
needs any help I can help. I am involved in politics but I know
the reasons why people keep out of politics and I know how to
motivate my kind. One has to be able to speak and say the things
they want to hear for their benefit. Not lie to them but to
really make them see the benefits in their environment.
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
Published Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 13:51
by
negrescuvictor
in New Social Europe (379 views and 1 comments)
Today I faced a
horrible event – one colleague of mine got beaten in the street
because he looked at the wrong car. Victim of an assault, he
couldn’t react or call the police because he was too scared that
the guy could get his home address – he seemed very dangerous and
with a lot of money.
How can you face brutality? How can you fight what’s illogical with
logic? This is today’s main problem. This event brought me back to
reality and unfortunately don’t have a perfect answer to this
problem. What’s the solution for violence? If I take the example of
violence in suburbia I can explain it by the lack of integration
and the social exclusion. The home violence is explained by
psychological reasons that we all know and even the hooligan
violence is explainable by the group feeling and mentality. But
this… free and hard violence is unexplainable.
I’m tempted to say education is the answer, but he surely didn’t
learn this at school. I’m also tempted to say that the solution is
to put cameras everywhere and to be more radical but this only
scares not stops violence. One thing is for certain – Romania is
not a dangerous country, not at all, but unfortunately today’s
Romanian society is too concentrated upon TV life and media selling
news and forgets about...
read more
What is the price of
symbolism, the historic reconciliation of France and Germany in
the post-World War II Europe? Strasbourg, one of the seats of the
European Parliament, is the very embodiment of the values of
peace and reconciliation.
On the other hand the European Parliament's monthly trips to
Strasbourg show how wasteful the European Union can be - getting
all the MEPs, Assistants, Secretariat staff and documents there
each month costs €200 million a year and 20000 tonnes of CO2
emissions (source: OneSeat, T&E). If we're cynical about it, perhaps
the Member States want the EP to look like some kind of
travelling circus? But as citizens and activists we should demand
better than that.
So what are the options? One would be for the European Parliament
to be located only in Strasbourg. This would for sure
keep the city of Strasbourg content, and would maintain the
historical significance of French-German reconciliation. But
plenty of MEPs and staff would still have to make the trip on the
motorway or train to Brussels to meet Commission and Council
officials - hence the environmental impact of this might...
Today, economic
globalization is an obviously true. Social globalization is not so
obvious. The reason is that economic liberalism is based in
“laissez fair-laissez passer” so, they don’t need any institution
to make it happen, the
invisible hand of Adam Smith does their work very efficiently.
The capitals move freely everywhere and they go where they get more
profits, normally they go to the countries where social rights are
not so strong because the welfare state requires a lot of money in
taxes. From my point of view, the only way to avoid this situation
is to build a strong European Socialist Party. European Union must
to take enough power to became one of the main international
subjects (USA, IMF, MB, Japan…) with real capacity of influence in
the international scene. Today, decisions must to be taken in a
global way, socialists must to put together all their resources to
push for a change in the institutions, and ways of acting of the
European Union. Socialism must to became global, as global as
liberalism, other way our main institution will disappear.
read more
There is a clear
disconnection between the EU and its citizens. Although this is
easily explainable it is not sustainable in the long term.
Democratic regimes cannot afford to cut citizens loose, citizens’
participation being itself the principle of democracy. How can we
develop citizens’ interest in EU activities?
First, citizens need to be given the means to have an influence on
the decisions taken at EU level. They need to be given a real
opportunity to shape the EU’s future. Election turn-out increases
when the issue at stake is clear. The complexity of the EU
decision-making system is the reason for low participation in
European elections. Although in the context of the current
institutional balance it seems unrealistic it is of high importance
that we give ourselves the long-term objective of politicising the
EU political system.
Time has come to think about a radical change in the EU’s
institutional balance. The Parliament should be the most powerful
institution of the three. The Commission should be a product of the
Parliament. This would imply that the Commission would no longer
stay in its allegedly neutral position. It would become a European
government. Some would say the EU citizens are not ready for that.
It is probably true. It should however be our objective in...
read more
I would just like to congratulate the Party of European Socialists
for the initiative they have taken. Through this website citizens
will be able to express their ideas and table their propositions
which I hope will be taken into consideration. It is very important
to engage citizens and listen to what they have to say. Europe is
very important nowadays and European political parties have to
widen their scope of action. We need political parties which will
be strong at a European level and which will represent the people
of Europe. Good luck and all the best for the manifesto.
read more
Here are more video statements from PES activists. They explain why Europe's socialists
and social democrats need a common manifesto for the 2009
European elections.
We need a ‘democratic infrastructure’ in Europe. This
should be a top priority for PES. To be short:
The Union and the member states will have to invest in a
‘democratic infrastructure’ that will make it easier for citizens
to meet face-to-face in cross border political meetings.
Top politicians and business people have the structures and the
funding that makes it possible for them to conduct cross border
political networks. This is good and fine, we should be in favour
of that.
The problem is that most citizens do not have this kind of
opportunities. 9 out of 10 Europeans never discuss politics with
citizens from other countries! This is what we have to
change.
PES should suggest that the EU and the member states invest €2
per citizen per year in a democratic infrastructure. We need true
European political parties and a thriving European civil society.
Unfortunately, these things will not drop from the sky. This is
why PES should suggest a European democratic infrastructure.
By the way, we also have to elect our PES candidate for the post
as president of the European Commission. This we have to do
before the end of 2008 (in January 2009 the European Council will
elect "their" president)
Check out New Europe's website for the initiative read more
As you know, the Treaty of Lisbon significantly changed the
organization and functioning of the European Union Institutions,
namely the new Treaty generalizes - with few exceptions - the
process of “co-decision” in which the European Parliament and the
Council – formed by the ministers of member states –
participate.
On the other hand, the European Union Reform Treaty ordered that
the voting will be done by qualified majority in forty issues –
like the security of energetic supply and humanitarian emergency
aid in critical areas of the world; however the unanimity will go
on as general rule, namely in what regards tax, external politics,
defence, social security and culture.
Besides, the Treaty will strengthen the democratic control of the
EU, since it grants more important functions whether to the
European Parliament or the National Parliament. Moreover, the
citizens will have the right, for the first time, of proposing the
Commission to adopt a specific legislative initiative. Finally,
there will be established a high representative for the Common
Foreign and Security Policy, being a new institutional figure that
will simultaneously perform two offices: the office of high
representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the
office of Vice-President of the Commission. Without doubt we are on
the right track! read more
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:
A while ago the Yourspace team welcomed a Dutch
blogger, living in Berlin. Now we have come across another blog
from Germany, Rotes Europa - if you would like to discuss the PES
manifesto in German, this is certainly a good place to be.
read more
Nathalie Conan, representative of the Fouesnant area in France,
mentions the PES manifesto campaign on her
blog! Thanks for spreading the word!
read more
L’Union Européenne connaît un déficit démocratique si important que
son avenir est sans doute en danger. La voie pragmatique et
économique proposée par les fondateurs de l’Europe suite à l’échec
d’une première tentative de construction politique par la
Communauté Européenne de Défense a permis aux peuples d’Europe de
connaître la paix, d’apaiser les conflits et les inimitiés entre
les peuples et d’atteindre un niveau de vie inconnue à ce jour.
Cette méthode a maintenant atteint ces limites, avec l’intégration
des nouveaux pays de l’Europe de l’Est. La recherche de la
prospérité économique, qui n’était que l’heureuse conséquence de la
construction européenne initiale, est devenu la seule motivation et
le seul ciment de l’Europe. Celle-ci est maintenant très proche
d’une simple zone de libre échange où chaque pays défend aux mieux
ses intérêts, passe des accords et établit des alliances
opportunistes et sans lendemain. Dans ce jeu là les chefs d’Etats
et leurs conseillers, les structures européennes et leurs experts,
se retrouvent au cœur du pouvoir politique et en excluent de fait
les citoyens européens. Ceux-ci subissent l’Europe plus qu’ils...
read more
Eamon Gilmore from the Labour Party in Ireland was one of the party leaders
who took part in the recent PES Council. We asked him about the PES
manifesto and how he thinks the two days in Sofia have brought us
closer to a common agenda for Europe's socialists and social
democrats.
European political parties can play an important role in shaping
European democracy and therefore they should play an important
part in our manifesto theme on European Democracy and Diversity.
In order to start a discussion, I would like to present two short
texts. One is a translated paragraph from the new SPD (German social
democrats) manifesto "Hamburg Programme". It is taken from the
chapter "Democratic Europe". The second text is composed of a few
paragraphs drawn up by me.
1.) This is a quote from the German social democrats on
"Democratic Europe":
European democracy requires a European public scope. European
media, organizations of civil society, social partners, but even
strong European political parties are indispensable for this. Our
aim is to develop the Social Democratic Party of Europe to become
a functioning members’ and program party. We are favouring the
elaboration of a program of social democratic principles for
Europe. In the elections to the European Parliament we want to
present a pan-European candidate.
If you are interested in reading the whole chapter, you can
download the SPD "Hamburg Programme" here
The Committee of the
Regions brings together local and regional politicians from
everywhere in Europe. PES is represented here as well – with 110
full members. Now the members of the PES Group in the Committee
of the Regions will have their say in the PES manifesto
consultation – they have launched a manifesto section on their website, inviting their
friends to join the debate.
Mercedes Bresso, President of the PES Group in the Committee of
the Regions, who oversees the consultation process, stresses:
"To be truly democratic, the PES Manifesto consultation needs
to be taken to the level closest to the citizens. This is where
Socialists and Social Democrats of the Committee of the Regions
can make a meaningful contribution."
in EU in the world (94 views and 0 comments)
S’inspirer de soixante
années d’expérience de la construction européenne pour avancer un
nécessaire projet d’Union Méditerranéenne est, à première vue, une
idée excellente. Vigilance pourtant au moment de manipuler le
vocabulaire et les méthodes de la success story européenne.
L’Europe des pères fondateurs ne se résume ni à quelque technique
habile, ni à quelques mots magiques, pas plus qu'à des partenariats
économiques tous azimuts. Elle oblige génétiquement à un partage de
souveraineté sur ce qui fait mal. L’Europe politique n’est
pas née seulement et durablement des moyens financiers offerts par
le plan Marshall. Elle s’est imposée dans le sillage d’un geste
politique historique, celui de la déclaration Schuman. Or, cette
initiative allait bien au-delà du champ économique. Il ne
s’agissait pas d’annoncer la restauration du théâtre de Bayreuth
avec des prêts bonifiés ! A cette époque, on voyait plus loin, on
visait plus haut. On confiait à une autorité politique nouvelle ce
qui avait servi à tant faire couler le sang des...
read 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
Thanks to Jon Worth for his proposals to how Europe’s socialist
and social democratic parties can campaign together in the 2009
elections.
How can we spark a
greater interest in EU politics? Lolomodrego asked this question some time ago and it
is a good one.
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':
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!
Today I faced a
horrible event – one colleague of mine got beaten in the street
because he looked at the wrong car. Victim of an assault, he
couldn’t react or call the police because he was too scared that
the guy could get his home address – he seemed very dangerous and
with a lot of money.
What is the price of
symbolism, the historic reconciliation of France and Germany in
the post-World War II Europe? Strasbourg, one of the seats of the
European Parliament, is the very embodiment of the values of
peace and reconciliation.
Today, economic
globalization is an obviously true. Social globalization is not so
obvious. The reason is that economic liberalism is based in
“laissez fair-laissez passer” so, they don’t need any institution
to make it happen, the
invisible hand of Adam Smith does their work very efficiently.
The capitals move freely everywhere and they go where they get more
profits, normally they go to the countries where social rights are
not so strong because the welfare state requires a lot of money in
taxes. From my point of view, the only way to avoid this situation
is to build a strong European Socialist Party. European Union must
to take enough power to became one of the main international
subjects (USA, IMF, MB, Japan…) with real capacity of influence in
the international scene. Today, decisions must to be taken in a
global way, socialists must to put together all their resources to
push for a change in the institutions, and ways of acting of the
European Union. Socialism must to became global, as global as
liberalism, other way our main institution will disappear.
read more
There is a clear
disconnection between the EU and its citizens. Although this is
easily explainable it is not sustainable in the long term.
Democratic regimes cannot afford to cut citizens loose, citizens’
participation being itself the principle of democracy. How can we
develop citizens’ interest in EU activities?
The Committee of the
Regions brings together local and regional politicians from
everywhere in Europe. PES is represented here as well – with 110
full members. Now the members of the PES Group in the Committee
of the Regions will have their say in the PES manifesto
consultation – they have launched a manifesto section on their website, inviting their
friends to join the debate.
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