Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 17:00
by
eromerof 
in European democracy & diversity (163 views and 0 comments)
Today, European Union is an economic reality but not a political one because the weight of European Institutions in the international scene is very frail. This situation is not very good for the people who believe that economic liberalism is too strong in the whole world thanks to the globalization phenomenon. Social globalization is not so strong as the economical one and this is a real problem for the “socialist family” since the values of socialism are based on a social way of thinking.
That is the reason because the European Socialists should work to build a very strong Party of European Socialists. We have to compensate for the excessive power of economic liberalism with a new model of social protection. European Union should take enough power to become one of the main international players (such as the United States, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Japan, etc.) with real capacity of influence in the “international social agenda”. Today, decisions should be taken in a global way; socialists should bring together all their resources to push for a change in the European Institutions, and ways of acting of the European Union. Socialism must become global, as global as liberalism, otherwise our main institution (welfare state) will disappear.
Find a
read morePublished Friday, April 11, 2008 at 10:31
by
noelhatch
in New Social Europe (213 views and 0 comments)
However, the economic layers of governance have been eroded by
globalisation. There is an increased pressure on costs. If we
debate the reform of the European social model, we need to debate
the reform of globalisation. Economic globalisation increases
within and between countries.
How can we develop a politics of international
redistribution?
Henning proposed that we needed a politics of national and
international redistribution - we need to explore a global social
politics. This includes:
Published Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 16:46
by
noelhatch
in New Social Europe (219 views and 0 comments)
See more of his proposals and his debate here:
read more
Published Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 09:16
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (253 views and 0 comments)
On the 11 March 2008 Labour Movement for Europe held a debate on
"Globalisation in the Community - how can we
shape a Social Europe?" This was the third of six manifesto
debates in London. One of the PES activists in London has
submitted videos from the debate to the PES manifesto group on
YouTube. Here is Deborah Littman, Chair of London
Citizens Living Wage Network and UNISON
National Officer:
Find more videos from the debate here
read more
Published Friday, March 28, 2008 at 15:30
by
ania_skrzypek
in EU in the world (562 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 18, 2008 at 14:22
by
Editor
in In the spotlight (312 views and 0 comments)
The Swedish social
democrats discussed the future of EU when the Swedish Social
Democratic Party met in the Swedish Parliament on March 7th. The
keynote speakers were Mona Sahlin, party leader and chair of the
PES group Save our planet, Margot Wallström, Vice-president of
the EU Commission, Jan Eliasson, former Minister for foreign
affairs, and Wanja Lundby-Wedin, President of the Swedish LO and ETUC. Around 250 persons
attended the conference.Published Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 12:07
by
Duncan Anderson
in EU in the world (261 views and 2 comments)
Published Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 09:46
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (298 views and 0 comments)
Published Monday, March 3, 2008 at 10:06
by
Editor
in EU in the world (287 views and 0 comments)
Speaking at a PES
fringe meeting at Labour Party Spring Conference in Birmingham on
Saturday British Foreign Secretary David Milliband said “the
PES manifesto is an opportunity to mark a new stage in the way we
think of European politics."Published Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:05
by
negrescuvictor
in European democracy & diversity (372 views and 3 comments)
Published Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 09:59
by
amandinecrespy
in New Social Europe (283 views and 1 comments)
Tags: globalization, tax
File:
Motion taxation des transactions financières.doc
Published Friday, February 22, 2008 at 17:15
by
Editor
in EU in the world (503 views and 0 comments)
Published Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 16:51
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (507 views and 1 comments)
Published Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 11:42
by
Editor
in Save our planet (657 views and 2 comments)
When speaking to Ilmar
Reepalu, Mayor of Malmö, Sweden, and member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions, you realize
that mentality is really the key to change when it comes to
combating climate change. Since the mid-nineties Reepalu has been
working to change Malmö from an industrial town to a modern, green
capital of the region. And with great success – Malmö has received
numerous prizes for its green projects, most recently the
prestigious ‘LivCom’ award in London. Published Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 11:00
by
frederic.vareillas
in EU in the world (500 views and 2 comments)
Je viens de voir hier
"le monde de Gazprom" sur ARTE. Au vu de ce reportage, il me semble
très urgent que l'UE renforce ses liens avec la Russie de Poutine
et de Medvedev.Published Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 16:28
by
Editor
in EU in the world (504 views and 1 comments)
On 26 January, hundreds of organizations held events across the
world to mark the 8th World Social Forum and voice their demands for a
fair and inclusive globalization process. They did this on the
same day the Davos Economic Forum, which gathers the rich and
powerful to discuss the world’s problems. Problems that the World
Social Forum organizations feel are being treated without concern
for the needs of the world’s ordinary citizens, who are the first
affected by globalization.
Criticisms are often aimed at socialist and social democratic
parties, which fight for social progress, but are increasingly
seen as failing to offer an answer to the growing inequalities
generated by globalization. As a consequence, many people have
turned to civil society organizations to voice their concern,
rather than political parties.
How should Europe’s progressive political parties react to
globalization? Which solutions should they offer for making
globalization fairer and more inclusive and get closer to the
citizens? To what extent should the PES and its parties take part
in the WSF movement and the issues raised by international civil
society?
The World Social Forum was launched in 2001 in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, as a counter-event to the annual...
Published Monday, January 28, 2008 at 11:08
by
Editor
in European democracy & diversity (499 views and 2 comments)
As a part of the newly started ‘Year of Intercultural
Dialogue’ the European Parliament has invited a number of state and
religious leaders to speak in its midst. Some weeks ago the grand
mufti of Syria, Sheik Ahmad Bader Hassoun, spoke in Strasbourg –
which triggered a heated debate among parliamentary members. Some
have aired concern that the list of guest speakers is more an
attempt to encourage ‘inter-religious’ rather than ‘intercultural’
dialogue. Others are worried that there are no women among the
invited guests - all speakers are men.Published Monday, November 12, 2007 at 16:58
by
anqa
in EU in the world (539 views and 0 comments)
Here's a visit to the office of Marek Siwiec, Vice-President of the European Parliament. He talks about the role of Europe in an increasingly globalized world and our responsibility towards other continents.
read more
Published Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 23:28
by
Sortir de l'Impasse
in New Social Europe (695 views and 1 comments)
The French PES activists propose a discussion on the policies that we will have to come up with to protect our European industry and services in an increasingly globalized world. This subject is interesting, not because socialists are sometimes perceived as advocates of “economic patriotism” (which may be true), but because of the recent examples of large sovereign funds that have the wealth to purchase industrial assets in Europe.
A few years ago, European and American companies were the sole ones “buying the world”, for example investing in emerging countries, buying shares of privatized companies (mainly in Africa) or entering a joint-venture scheme (for instance in China).
A couple of days ago, we discovered through a survey run by Standard Chartered and cited by the Financial Times, that sovereign funds hold huge amounts of money. These amounts are estimated at around $2,200bn (i.e. around the French annual GDP) and have been accumulated by states like China, Norwegian, Abu Dhabi, … coming either from oil exports or from current-account surpluses.
Concretely, these funds can invest in any share available in...
read morePublished Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 23:57
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (1077 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 Monday, October 29, 2007 at 14:06
by
Editor
in EU in the world (650 views and 0 comments)
”Today Arena Europe has turned into a meeting place for world leaders. This makes it even more important for us as social democrats to have a policy that addresses the big questions,” said Inger Segelström during this weekend's ‘Palme Days’ in Karlstad, Sweden.
Inger Segelström is a member of the European Parliament and represents the Social Democratic Party of Sweden. In her speech at the Palme Days she invited all socialists and social democrats in Europe to take part in the debate about a common manifesto for the European elections in 2009.
Margot Wallström, vice president of the European Commission, also spoke at Palme Days. In the same spirit as other speakers she explained:
”Alone is not strong - social democrats have always built their peace efforts and their international commitment on collaboration. Now social democrats need to formulate political visions for Europe and the world - together with both members and voters”
According to Margot Wallström studies show that a great part of Europe’s citizens would like the EU to speak with one voice in the world, that the 27 member countries, the reunited Europe should be active in solving the world’s big problems.
But Margot also noted that...
read morePublished Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 11:34
by
Editor
in EU in the world (570 views and 1 comments)
Published Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 11:01
by
Editor
in Save our planet (745 views and 2 comments)
Al Gore and the
United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have
been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel
Committee "for their efforts to build up and disseminate
greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the
foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such
change."
According to the Committee Chairman, "a peace price is a positive message and support to all fighting for peace in the world." The award highlights the potential of climate change to cause conflict between nations - and the potentially transforming impact of the co-operation needed between nations to tackle this challenge. Is encouraging international collaboration to fight climate change the EU's next big task?
read morePublished Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 13:39
by
Mochinho
in New Social Europe (568 views and 0 comments)
In my opinion the forthcoming manifesto should contain positions on the problems of hedge funds. Using a biblical metaphor these funds have been nicknamed as locusts in the public discussion in Germany.
The problems regarding hedge funds are known. Especially for employees there is little or no certainty concerning their future. The manifesto should call for a more humane capitalism and emphasise the possible legal measures the EU can take in a globalized world.
read morePublished Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 10:32
by
Editor
in EU in the world (717 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 Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 12:12
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (647 views and 0 comments)
“Flexicurity” has become a buzzword. This labour market concept, combining high levels of flexibility and security, is generally linked to northern European countries like Denmark and Sweden, but has also proved successful elsewhere, e.g. in the Netherlands. In this model, relations between employers and workers are much more flexible, but the state also invests a lot of money to bring the unemployed back to work more quickly. Unemployed people receive benefit payments, but in turn, they must also accept re-training and qualification measures. It is an approach based on rights and duties.
Instead of job security, the idea of flexicurity is to create employment security; the security of always having work, but not necessarily a job for a life-time.
True, such “Active Labour Market Policies” cost money, but the results are impressive. Denmark’s unemployment rate, for example, has dropped from 13 percent to 3.9 percent in the years of the labour market reforms.
So could this be a model for all European countries?
Recently the European Commission has issued a communication aimed at setting common principles of flexicurity in Europe. However, it is always pointed out, that each country will have to find its own version of the flexicurity concept, because there are great differences in the economy, the degree of social...
read morePublished Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 10:43
by
Editor
in EU in the world (629 views and 2 comments)
It is hardly controversial to point out that the UN Security Council is a post WWII construction that does not reflect today’s realities. But are we really ready for change? Can we accept one EU seat? That would be consistent with a Common Foreign and Security Policy, but it would also mean UK and France losing their own seats in the long run.
And it is not just a question of who sits on the Council. There is the veto which allows any one permanent member to stop any UN security or peace initiative. More importantly, could the UN play a bigger and more decisive military role in peace keeping – and resolving conflicts before they escalate into violence? The EU recognizes the UN’s primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security – so why not give it some teeth, some real powers?
Perhaps we should first push the EU to develop a real Foreign and Security policy before being overly ambitious about the UN? On the other hand why not recognize that UK and France, and all other European countries, are no longer world powers, and that the best hope for real European influence would be to press ahead simultaneously with the EU Foreign and Security Policy and a joint role in the UN Security Council?
read morePublished Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 10:33
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (752 views and 4 comments)
Should Europe offer a special ‘blue card’ to skilled immigrants? Recently EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini announced that he is planning a proposal for a European version of the US’ green card.
The proposal is motivated by the fact that only five percent of the migrants that come to Europe are skilled. In contrast 55 percent of the migrants in the US are skilled.
“We have to reverse these figures with a new vision,” says Mr. Frattini to euobserver.com.
To deal with ‘brain drain’, particularly challenging for parts of Africa and the Caribbean, the commissioner explains his proposal will promote “ethical recruitment standards” to limit recruitment in particularly vulnerable countries.
Inger Segelström is a Swedish social democrat and a member of the European Parliament. In her opinion immigration should not be limited to skilled workers, but their families should be allowed as well to ensure integration into society:
“It is important to allow immigrant families, partners and children to come together with...
read moreTags: employment, globalization, immigration, PES
File:
test1_9.pdf,
test_6.doc
Published Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 12:47
by giselaoliveira in New Social Europe ( comments)
PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen had a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth. “Gordon Brown committed to be an active participant in PES work” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. “He is very switched on about Europe and wants the PES to work in a sharp and focussed way. I completely agree with him – his temperament is not for long bureaucratic meetings and nor is mine.”
Published Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 16:25
by noelhatch in New Social Europe ( comments)
Before our debate on New Social Europe, start submitting your ideas here and we will feature a selection on the night!
http://compassyouth.blogspot.com/200...isation-in-community-how-can-we.html
Published Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 16:31
by noelhatch in EU in the world ( comments)
Before our debate on Europe in the World, start submitting your ideas here and we will feature a selection on the night!
http://compassyouth.blogspot.com/200...it-global-how-can-europe-change.html
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