Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 16:37
by
Editor
in EU in the world (982 views and 3 comments)
Published Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 09:57
by
Editor
in EU in the world (992 views and 0 comments)
Published Friday, March 28, 2008 at 15:30
by
ania_skrzypek 
in EU in the world (1220 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 Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 04:16
by
frederic.vareillas
in EU in the world (1010 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.
6/ USA are...
read morePublished Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 17:18
by
Editor
in EU in the world (842 views and 0 comments)
Published Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 11:30
by
Editor
in EU in the world (997 views and 0 comments)
‘EPAs’ – the
expression itself sounds harmless, but these trade agreements with
poor countries are really a hot topic for debate!Published Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 23:57
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (2047 views and 0 comments)
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...
read morePublished Friday, October 5, 2007 at 16:05
by
Editor
in EU in the world (1738 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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