PES Manifesto

1. Good idea, but too early... par pattheact le vendredi 1 février 2008 à 09h27

Even if I think that your first idea sounds good when you say all European citizens should be able to become PES members or activists, without being member of a national party, I do also think that to do politics in an efficient way, we do need the expertise and resources of the national parties when it comes to grassroots activism.

The double membership (national party/PES) is also a good way to keep the national parties focused on European issues and as we still need national parties and governments to define and implement new law proposals, I am not convinced that if we disconnected one membership from the other, national parties would still feel like supporting grassroot activism they cannot "control".

I think your idea is good, but I do also think that it is too early to really think of it, there is still a lot to do inside our national parties on a European level and the double membership is the guarantee for motivated activists to influence the decision-making process inside the national parties, who then have the means to efficiently influence European politics through the PES channel.

2. Very good idea par ginneken le samedi 2 février 2008 à 20h17

Very much agree that citizens all around Europe should be able to become a member of PES, without being a member of a national PES party. This would enable PES to also levy a separate membership fee, which is not the case now.

With a group of social-democrats from different countries we have set up an association called "the Eurosocialists in Geneva", which includes members from European national sociallist parties and other members. The current step-wise democracy in Europe - not only with regard to national parties - is one of the explanations why European policies are not well understood and accepted. People feel that they have no impact on them. The democracy in Europe should therefore become more direct, and national parties should be able to cope with that.

3. Is it really a good idea ? par chourka le mardi 5 février 2008 à 11h13

More than having the ability to become straight members of a political structure, what would be a huge step for the strengthening of european political parties —starting with our, the PSE— is the voting right for the activists on the definition of the orientation and the agenda.

 It is important to keep/build the multiple dimension of socialist's activism : local, regional, national and europea. This can only be possible with the "dual" structure.

Anyway, the very first step of all this is in our mind and in the mind of our representatives. Start behave as Europeans rather  than nationals and everything will be different. But, we have to acknowledge that it is a major shift.

4. The PES should try something new and be innovative par thanos le mardi 5 février 2008 à 14h04

Thank you for the comments.

I also agree with you that beeing members of our own national parties is important. But I think that sometimes citizens are not very happy with the actions of their national Socialist parties.

Not all Socialist parties have been renewed and some of them do not take into consideration (or to be more precise, do not debate over ) issues and policies which reflect the principle values of socialist parties (for example: childcare, gender equality, homosexual rights, ....).

Anyway, I still think the PES should offer the possibility for someone to become, if he wishes to, a member of the party. I think it is also a way of recruiting active citizens at a European level. I know the national level is very important and I agree with that, but we could also try something new and innovative.

5. In support of innovation... par sallustius le mercredi 6 février 2008 à 19h15

Thanos - I very much agree with your proposition. While it is undebatable that our national socialist parties play a crucial role in promoting the idea of democratic socialsim both on a local and the European level, - I would think it a prudent decision to allow separate membership to the PES too.

We should try to levy as many people as possible for the task of creating a "New Social Europe". Of course this is improssible without the integrated structure of the national parties, but what damage would the option of a 'complimentary' PES-only membership do? If anything, it could win more people's interest in the transnational issues that very much determine the living conditions on our respective local level.

I work for a party-affiliated political network (young socialists) in Germany and we opened our membership up for non-'SPD' members a couple of years ago (of course, for them some voting rights had to be limited for legal reasons). It was a huge success though, such that especially young people are increasingly taking part in our meetings and many eventually join the SPD just as many SPD-members take part in our organization.

Couldn't a similar model serve both the national parties and the PES as their European dimension as well? 

 The PES could thus also gain some ability to be recognized by the public as a separate factor or 'brand' in European politics with which citizens can identify. As for my perception, both parties and media never highlight nor even mention the PES. Understandably, they first think of their own recognition in their respective country before giving credit to the PES -  even when talking of events which directly relate to it or which are organized by the PES. 

 Sorry for my (probably in some points rather fallacious) generalizations above, but we're dealing with a general issue here ...