Publié mardi 19 février 2008 à 14h30
par
jonworth 
(vu 1026 fois et 5 commentaires)
In every European election to date candidates from the PES Member Parties have campaigned under their national party banners. Apart for the initiated in Brussels, and the growing band of PES activists and members of ECOSY, few of the electorate have ever heard of the PES. Yet when the MEPs, freshly elected, find themselves in Brussels and Strasbourg freshly elected in 2009, working in a pan-European party political manner in the Socialist Group in the European Parliament will become second nature.
So how do we bridge this gap, and is it indeed worth doing so?
Let's start with the socialist MEPs in the Parliament at the moment. The Socialist Group has 215 MEPs from 25 countries - so that's on average 8.6 MEPs per country. With 20 full committees in the EP, and MEPs normally being full members of only one committee, for most national delegations it is impossible for their MEPs to cover all policy areas. So when the 8 Greeks or 2 Lithuanians are up for re-election how are they going to explain what's going on in the policy areas that none of them cover on an everyday basis?
The answer of course is that they will speak about the work done by their 'socialist colleagues' in the European Parliament, but again we're in a trap - does the electorate in Lithuania value the work on fisheries policy done by a socialist MEP from Portugal from a party that he or she has never heard of?
This is where the public identity of the PES needs to develop. In essence being a Labour, SPD or PASOK MEP is not enough in itself - it would be impossible to achieve anything in the European Parliament without socialists from other Member States. Hence it would be good to see candidates standing in the election using some sort of common branding - using PES logos AND national party logos in their materials and on their websites, and talking explicitly about the PES. Undoubtedly some countries are already better at this than others...
Additionally with increasing numbers of EU nationals living outside their country of birth, an appeal to Europe-wide values embodied by the PES can be more relevant now than ever, a point developed by the Labour Movement for Europe 'Polish Voter' paper.
Last but not least, any candidates running explicitly under a PES banner are sure to attract plenty of PES activists to their town or region, helping out on a practical level and adding a pan-European flavour to the election campaigns.
It's a common election, so let's have some common branding and common campaigning too.
Chargement...
Commentaires
1. United for once?? par Bobcat le mardi 19 février 2008 à 18h38
Hi Jon,
I think you are absolutely right! PES member parties have never united their forces so far to win a European election. When they are campaigning in their own country it's to put their national politcies first. This is why we need to strongly encourage Yourspace, first time ever we are being asked for our opinion and maybe we could make a difference!
2. Are you good at maths? par Gwendoline le mardi 19 février 2008 à 18h42
Interesting calculation. But actually, how many MEPs are present at all sessions? And do they get along well? When you see the SPD and the CDU speaking together to save the interests of Germany, you just wonder... What do other s think?3. bringing europe closer to its citizens par Markus le mardi 19 février 2008 à 18h48
hi! well i think that most EU countries tend to do that and it's certainly not a good thing. to let go of national politics the PES should have a unique and strong leader who would fully play its role. So Poul? Martin?4. Common symbol par brusselsblogger le mercredi 20 février 2008 à 18h09
Interesting topic. Even the European Greens - sorry to mention them here :) - who have already used a more coherent branding during the last European elections have not used their logos/visual image very consistently, once the election was over. Their most common symbol still seems to be their sunflower though.
Could the PES member parties all live with the red carnation flower as common symbol? Or should it rather be the red callout box?
5. Party vs. National par jonworth
le mercredi 20 février 2008 à 18h52
Gwendoline - interesting comment... When it comes to the car industry German MEPs do tend to stick together! Then there are famous vodka wars as well, that managed to pit national delegations against each other. About 80% of MEPs are present at each plenary session, and probably a similar proportion at the relevant committee meetings - so take that into account and my figures are even more stark.
Brusselsblogger - yes, the greens did do more in terms of common symbols at the 2004 European elections, but while the branding was there the programme they presented was minimalist to say the least. It posed us problems when I was making Votematch for the 2004 elections...
Which reminds me: need to think of some more fun Web 2.0 tools for 2009...
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