Socialists are pushing for
more action on climate change, since it is necessary to act now,
leaving aside the disastrous “business as usual approach”.
Socialist MEP Linda McAvan (Labour UK) hosted the WWF debate “EU
Climate action : Do 30% NOW!” on 6 May 2008. Here are a few
conclusions from the meeting:
EU has proven to be on the right path in fighting against climate
change but more has to be done. Achieving deep emission reductions
in Europe by 2020 is not only a question of available technologies
but rather one of taking right political decisions. At national
level, governments have to create the right incentives to support
energy efficiency and promote investments in low carbon
technologies and renewables, while at the European level, the
European Emissions Trading Scheme should form the central part of
the overall European strategy.
If Europe is quite confident that they will move all together in
the same direction, what about the others? We have to bear in mind
that even if climate change is a global issue, developed countries
have an historical responsibility towards developing ones.
Therefore OECD countries have to help developing countries to
decouple economic growth from greenhouse emissions and adapt to
climate change...
read more
Josep Borrell is Member of the European
Parliament for the Spanish socialist party, PSOE. He was President of the European Parliament
2004-2007 and in this video he gives his ideas for the PES
manifesto:
Do you agree with Josep Borrell's suggestions for the PES
manifesto?
read more
Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 10:12
by
markus.austria
in EU in the world (165 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
Nowadays, the panorama of the left in Europe does not seem to be
very tempting. Only 7 out of 27 countries belonging to EU are
ruled by socialist parties. These are: United Kingdom, Portugal,
Spain, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Cyprus. We could argue
that there is a lack of real political leadership, a leadership
that in other decades was embodied by politicians such as
Francois Mitterrand.
The political victory of Zapatero in Spain last march gives the
Spanish socialism a great opportunity to implement and develop
politics that can be seen as an example for other European
countries. It generates a new opportunity to take the initiative
in the European context. Whereas the majority of countries in
South America are governed by left parties, sometimes with a
strong and questionable populist sense, and whereas United States
are given an opportunity to give the power again to the
Democratic party, regardless of whether Clinton or Obama wins,
the European left movement needs to reshape its political agenda,
taking the initiative and dismantling the demagogic and populist
discourse of conservative countries, too much focused on very
sensitive and easy to be manipulated issues such as security,
migration, taxes...
From a Spanish perspective, I would like to introduce some of the
main points for a socialist agenda. An...
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty
agency whose aim is to fight poverty worldwide. Joanna Maycock is
EU Representative and presents ActionAid's suggestions for the PES
manifesto in this video interview:
Participants in the EU in the world debate seem to agree that the EU
should play a greater role in international politics and some
offered specific proposals on how this could be done.
Development - a lot more than economic growth
Development has been a central issue of the debates. Pattheact noted the need to deal with the emergence of
new donors, such as China in Africa. This new aid and loans come
without conditions of good governance, and therefore can have a
negative impact in developing countries, perpetuating the corrupt
systems. Eurodad proposed that the EU adheres to a set of
responsible financing standards, to avoid the resurgence of the
spiral of unpayable debt in developing countries. Our previous
blogger of the week Victor Negrescu also insists on the need for more
coherent development cooperation strategies to improve the
efficiency of development aid and ensure its focus on the needs of
local populations. On a related topic, Kim noted that the PES should take part in the
discussions on globalisation,...
read more
Published Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 04:16
by
frederic.vareillas
in EU in the world (454 views and 10 comments)
Hi,
Dmitri Medvedev has just been chosen by 70 % of the Russian
voters to become next President of Russian federation (with Putin
as Prime Minister).
1/ This election has been only PARTLY democratic but a vast
majority of the people in Russia are supportive of Putin's
policies and are behind Medvedev (more than 60% of th total
Russian population. So, Medvedev IS representative of the
russians as much as Bush is representative of the americans.
2/ Russia has 10000 nuclear warheads targeting western Europe
because of the American project of an anti missile "shield" (!)
in Poland and Chzec Republic.
3/ America is a debtor nation , diving into a great depression,
with no cash or oil left,
whereas Russia is on the rise : A new middle class, Oil, Gas,
Coal, Gold, Diamonds, A new banking, trading, commercial and
economic booming system.
4/ (and most important) : Look at your geographical maps :
Kaliningrad, Saint Petersburg, Moscow and most of the big Russian
cities ARE in EUROPE.
5/ A bit of history : The forefathers of the white Russians where
the "Varegs", Vikings coming to the region of Moscow around the
tenth century A.D.
Russians Are europeans, and live mostly on the European
continent.
That is to say : Most of the modern european Russians have
SWEDISH ancestors : Sweden happens to be a member of the U.E. and
is getting ready to join the € zone and the Schengen agreement.
Published Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 13:05
by
negrescuvictor
in EU in the world (436 views and 1 comments)
The EU member nations invest several million euros into the
development cooperation and education cooperation all over the
world. The main countries that benefit from these are those facing
transition to democracy and third world countries.
But does this work?
Actually, on some levels it works and on others is far from
happening. For instance, these investments are good for the
countries where they go, but unfortunately the lack of a true EU
common foreign policy and strategy are deterring the effects that
these funds could have in those societies. For instance, the new
European member countries have to invest several millions euros
into the cooperation projects but the lack of information, mostly
on the citizens’ level, creates several problem like how and in
which direction they should invest these funds.
Romania for instance is financing with around 30 millions euros per
year projects involving these kinds of cooperation projects. The
countries which benefit from these funds, thanks to the NGO’s which
have developed their activity there, are countries from the region
like Moldavia, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia … Shouldn’t we think at a
common policy on the EU international cooperation? Shouldn’t we try
to build up a common cooperation strategy that is in the benefit of
all the European countries and NGO’s and most of all in the benefit
of the countries that we try to help? Shouldn’t we promote...
read more
Published Friday, February 8, 2008 at 10:47
by
Gail Hurley
in EU in the world (426 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
The Spanish socialist party, PSOE, goes into the national elections with a
much-debated proposal to tackle brain drain. Javier Moreno, member of the European
Parliament for PSOE, gives the lowdown in this video:
What do you think – should the PES manifesto include this proposal
in its manifesto?
read more
Turn the tap on and
you’ll have fresh water, right? According to the World Health
Organization 14.000 – 20.000 people die every day because of
contaminated water. No one can live without access to clean water –
it is essential to survival and development.
Public goods are goods that are – or ought to be – there for
everyone to consume. NGOs and experts often argue that fresh water
should be made a global public good – available for everyone on the
planet.
In your opinion should the PES manifesto suggest water as a global
public good? Are there other goods that should be available
globally?
read more
‘EPAs’ – the
expression itself sounds harmless, but these trade agreements with
poor countries are really a hot topic for debate!
Right now the European Union is negotiating trade agreements with
77 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. If the developing
world and the EU have not reached an agreement before the end of
the year the 77 countries risk being left with a much less
advantageous deal. The deadline for the negotiations has just been
extended - buying both the EU and the developing countries more
precious time to think.
If you ask the poor countries signing the current offer from the EU
is not exactly a dream come true either. EPAs will open developing
economies to an extent never seen before. Poor countries are
concerned that increased liberalization will allow international
companies to ‘prey’ on their markets. ActionAid, an
international NGO, fears consequences such as job losses, cuts in
public services and government revenue losses.
The issue gets more complicated as the World Trade Organization
(WTO) and its members have a word to say as well. Other developing
countries - those who are not among the 77 offered EPAs - are
unlikely to accept such favouritism. One could also argue that
the...
read more
The “Putting the puzzle together: policy coherence for decent
work” Conference organized by the Global Progressive Forum (GPF),
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Solidar and
Social Alert International took place today in Lisbon, Portugal,
preceding the International Labour Confederation (ILO) forum on
Decent Work for a fair globalization.
Among the participants, a strong presence of trade unionists,
members of civil society organizations but also members of the
Portuguese Presidency of the EU. All together they called for
achieving Decent Work at global level – an essential condition to
attain a fairer globalization.
Juan Somavia, Director-General of ILO, underlined the importance
of creating alliances among progressive associations – and having
them working together coherently according to a toolkit providing
common guide-lines. Portuguese Minister of Labour and Social
Solidarity, José Vieira da Silva, has also mentioned the Decent
Work as a new global vision of development. The Portuguese
Minister connected “Decent Work Decent Life” to the Lisbon
Strategy, as the success of the external dimension of the Lisbon
Strategy would permit to strongly support Decent Work at a global
scale. Moreover, a new concept of sustainable development for the
21st century would comprehend three subjects: preserving the
environment, assuring human rights but also making sure the
agenda of Decent Work is put into...
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.
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...
How many people have been born this year? How many cars have been produced? How much CO2 has polluted the atmosphere? How many people have died due to lack of safe water? Find statistics and both good and bad news here!