Consultation archives :
Democracy at the EU level is stronger than ever before but is far from complete. Citizens feel more at ease with national politics than the European Union. If the EU is the 4th house of our democracy (after the local, regional and national) how can we make it more like a home? At the same time European countries are becoming more diverse with immigration and EU citizens moving from one Member State to another. What should the European Union do to make our societies fully at ease with our new diversity? How can the EU protect and improve the rights of the individual?
To read more
Order by: Highest rated, Most commented, Most read, Most recent
Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 09:52
by
carlosmoret 
(271 views and 0 comments)
The
Vienna forum was a very rich encounter. As for me the
presentation of activist campaigning was especially interesting,
since I tend to get easily involved. On the one hand there is the
manifesto2009, well under way that gives us a common platform for
the parliamentary elections, but that does not give me clues as
how to campaign. The Manifesto is an excellent tool, but we have
to sell it.
In the presentation "Experience Europe - Cross-border campaign exchanges" the panel was formed by four activists presenting different aspects of their campaigning in Ireland, Spain, Portugal and France.
Adrian O'Sullivan presented us his experience with PES activists
coming to Ireland to help in their election. I wasn't planning to
make a report, and therefore took no notes, just took pictures.
Adrian mentioned that... » read more
...
Tags: activists, campaign, forum, PES
File:
J_Reis_Santos_vienna.ppt
Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 09:33
by
desmondotoole
(273 views and 5 comments)
Immediately
following the NO vote in the recent Irish referendum activists
from the Irish Labour Party, French Parti Socialiste and others
have set up PES activists Dublin. We were
already planning such an initiative but the referendum result
gave added urgency to our work. We recognise that this is
potentially a defining moment in Ireland's relationship with the
EU and as a consequence in the structure and dynamics of Irish
politics.
The inaugural meeting of PES activists in Ireland was held on
Tuesday 24th June in the Labour Parliamentary Room in Leinster
House, Dublin - the home of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament). We
met below a mural which showed the early and more modern leaders
of the Irish labour movement grouped around an image of Marianne
leading the French people in the Revolution of 1830. Ireland's
republicanism and our socialism owe much to the example of the
French revolutions and meeting beneath this mural was our way of
paying homage to that tradition.
Our aim is to build European Left politics on the ground in
Dublin. Since June, more than 70 activists have joined our city
group. There is enormous interest both in Dublin and across
Ireland in what we are proposing. PES people are "on... » read more
...
Tags: activists, ireland, PES, political parties
Published Friday, July 4, 2008 at 10:12
by
negrescuvictor
(192 views and 2 comments)
An important
part of PES activists Romania proposal
for the Manifesto2009 is given to the Roma community issues. This
theme is considered an important social issue by the Romanian
social democrats and this is why our MEPs are supporting several
solutions included in our manifesto proposal like:
- the creation of the European Agency for Roma
- education projects for the Roma community
- promotion of the Roma culture as an European culture (the Roma community is not only a... » read more ...
Tags: blogger of the week, discrimination, diversity, equality, fundamental rights
Published Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 10:57
by
rikkeindenmark
(377 views and 6 comments)
This weekend I will
be doing a presentation on social networking tools at the
PES activist
forum in Vienna. I was glad to find out that there’ll be a
workshop dedicated to online campaigning - and now I'm looking
very much forward to debating the topic with other PES activists.
Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate with a few words on
online campaigning and my particular ‘campaigning speciality’,
namely social networking sites.
The US elections usually say a thing or two about upcoming
campaigning tools and methods. In the primaries social networks
turned out to be really hot - as a voter you could connect to
candidates pretty much everywhere: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn... you
name the network and Clinton and Obama would be
there!
Given the... » read more
...
Tags: blogger of the week, campaigning, elections, forum
File:
social_networks_campaigning.pdf
Published Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 10:50
by
chourka
(125 views and 0 comments)
Très rares sont les contributions qui pointent du doigt les discriminations dont souffre la communauté Rom. Une seule exception à cet oubli : la contribution de nos camarades du PSD. Faut-il y voir une spécificité locale ? Une chose est certaine : les Roms représentent une population estimée à 8 millions d'individus sur notre continent soit autant si ce n'est plus que bien des pays composant l'Union européenne.
A ce titre, on peut considérer que c'est la première minorité -si on peut encore parler de minorité avec une telle population- en Europe. Or, en raison de leur inorganisation, de leur dispersion, les Roms ne sont bien souvent pas reconnus. Ni dans leur histoire qui pourtant est faite de pas mal de souffrances (cf. la Seconde guerre mondiale), ni dans leur nature même.
Il y a là pour notre famille politique une question majeure à traiter. Pour être un peu provocateur, on peut d'ailleurs considérer que les premiers Européens sont les Roms, en cela, qu'ils ne sont pas attachés à un Etat-membre en particulier et qu'ils font preuve d'une mobilité peu commune à l'exception des cadres supérieurs.
La manière dont certains gouvernements sont tentés de faire des entorses aux Accords Schengen... » read more ...
Tags: blogger of the week, discrimination, diversity, EU, fundamental rights, roms
Published Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 15:09
by
stephane.veyret
(178 views and 0 comments)
« Unis dans la
diversité », tel est le slogan qui a été adopté pour l'Europe. Mais
quelle diversité souhaitons-nous vraiment ? Une diversité absolue,
où l'on ne pratique aucun échange entre les peuples, où chacun
garde sa propre culture, sa propre langue et ne cherche pas à
communiquer avec ses voisins ? Ou une diversité limitée, où l'on
fait en sorte que toute l'Europe s'exprime dans une même langue et
se reconnaisse dans des valeurs similaires ?
Aujourd'hui, il semble que c'est ce second choix qui a été fait, avec l'anglais comme langue commune, et les valeurs des États-Unis comme base de notre culture, au détriment de nos propres coutumes.
La France, pays réputé pour sa tolérance se dote de lois de plus en plus strictes, alors que les adolescents se reconnaissent de plus en plus dans les cow-boys qui, au nom d'une certaine idée de la justice, se permettent d'ôter la vie aux hors-la-loi… La France, pays réputé mondialement pour sa nourriture voit fleurir de plus en plus de « fast-food » au coin de ses rues. Le français, la langue des... » read more ...
Tags: discrimination, languages, multiculturalism
Published Friday, June 27, 2008 at 10:34
by
rikkeindenmark
(294 views and 3 comments)
“I don’t have
anything against gays and lesbians, but I do think the only right
thing for a child is to have a father and a mother”Tags: blogger of the week, discrimination, diversity, gay, LGBT
Published Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 16:30
by
arktika
(311 views and 7 comments)
Today EU has a Parliament. MEPs sit and travel between Strasbourg and Brussels, with no power and no authority. Commission, their army of bureaucrats and lobbyists keep EU as their playground.
One common custom is to... » read more ...
Tags: EU, European perspective, Western Balkans
Published Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 14:34
by
franciscopolo
(152 views and 0 comments)
At the same time
I start
writing this article the ratification process for the Lisbon
Treaty is starting at the Spanish Parliament. I can hear the
Foreign Affairs Ministry starting his discourse...
Probably (no to say “for sure”), tomorrow the Spanish newspapers will show on their front pages the results of the Spain vs. Russia soccer game at the Eurocup. The matter of the Treaty will also be shown in those newspapers but it will not be given so much importance.
As you probably know, the Lisbon Treaty is important due to many things: The Fundamental Rights Chart becomes binding, the Treaty creates a common space of liberty, security and justice (it was formerly... » read more ...
Tags: blogger of the week, citizens, democracy, fundamental rights, political parties, transparency, treaty
Published Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 09:39
by
negrescuvictor
(188 views and 2 comments)
Most of European
countries confront themselves with the problem of bringing
youngsters to vote at the different elections. Regarding European
elections the stats are similar to the other elections even knowing
Europe normally speaks more about the future of our societies.
Involving youngsters in the European project and inside the socialist parties is becoming a more and more difficult task even know many of the PES member parties have chosen to promote younger leaders or building special information campaigns. The question is to find a way in interesting youngsters in politics and in the European project.
PES activists Romania has participated at a debate in Bucharest on this issue and came to a general conclusion: the need of appealing and the necessity of offering new solutions to the next generation of social problems. It become clear to us that European themes have to been translated in a language understandable for everyone and this is a task that the PES has to assume.
There are social groups excluded by European politics because of its high level of specialization or simply by the lack of time and this is a task socialists have to complete. On the other hand we have to create new topics for our societies and mainly youngsters... » read more ...
Tags: blogger of the week, citizens, elections, PES, political parties
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 16:42
by
Editor
(248 views and 0 comments)
European Network Against Racism (ENAR), representing over 600 anti-racism NGOs all over Europe, put forward its suggestions for the manifesto2009!
Check them here with its director, Pascale Charhon.
Read ENAR' full contribution here and
leave us your comments to tackle minority problems across
Europe!
Published Monday, June 23, 2008 at 18:26
by
chourka
(463 views and 12 comments)
Plusieurs
contributions (Brussels PES working group, Contribution du PS 67,
contribution de la Fédération de Paris) mettent en avant la
nécessité pour les partis européens à commencer par le PSE
d'offrir aux électeurs un choix clairs entre la droite et la
gauche.
Toutes soulignent également qu'un mode de scrutin uniforme pour l'élection des députés européens est un objectif de plus en plus urgent de réaliser.
Enfin, la proposition formulée par Jacques Delors de faire du chef de file du parti arrivé en tête lors des Européennes, le Président de la Commission, est littéralement plébiscitée. Se pose alors pour les partis politiques européens la question de l'organisation concrête de cette désignation.
Pour un courant de pensée démocratique comme le socialisme, il n'est pas concevable que cela se fasse dans un conclave fermé à huis clos entre leaders des formations composant le PSE. Cela ne peut nécessairement se faire qu'à travers une consultation de l'ensemble des adhérents par un vote de désignation. A dire vrai, en tant que... » read more ...
Tags: blogger of the week, citizens, democracy, european elections, PES, transparence, UE
Published Monday, June 23, 2008 at 14:05
by
rikkeindenmark
(318 views and 3 comments)
I hope that this
campaign will still be relevant - in spite the depressing outcome
of the referendum in Ireland (of which I will speak no more for
now!).
Danish Member of the European Parliament, Christel Schaldemose, has started a cross-party campaign for having women represented among the 4 EU top leaders which will - hopefully all! - be appointed during the next year. If the Lisbon treaty is ratified we will see the following very important EU posts:
Have you ever seen a 'family photo' from meetings in the Council? Well, if you haven't allow me to enlighten you: it's black suits, suits and more suits. There are very few women top leaders in Europe. For me there is no doubt that we need a more equal representation of women and men.
Therefore, I encourage you to support Christel's initiative: Sign the » read more ...
Tags: blogger of the week, citizens, democracy, diversity, treaty
Published Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 12:26
by
Maitresinh
(418 views and 6 comments)
Note de la
rédaction : un sympathisant du PSE nous a envoyée une « lettre
ouverte » qui serait intégrée à une nouvelle section de
cafebabel.com, une magasine européen en ligne. Cette nouvelle
section du site traiterait le thème des élections européennes de
2009.
Pour un coup d’état démocratique européen en 2009 !
En juin 2009, pour la septième fois dans l’histoire de l’Europe, plus de 350 millions de citoyens voteront pour nommer leurs représentants au Parlement européen.
Trente ans se sont écoulés depuis les premières élections de 1979. Trente ans durant lesquels l’Europe et le monde ont beaucoup changé. Le Parlement européen lui aussi, de simple organe consultatif, a acquis d’année en année un pouvoir croissant au sein d’une Europe toujours plus unie.
Institution démocratique par excellence, exprimant la volonté des citoyens européens, le Parlement demeure pourtant dans l’ombre du Conseil des ministres, assemblée qui détient le dernier mot, privant... » read more ...
Tags: commission, democracy, democratie, europe, president
Published Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 09:28
by
Joel Cordier
(375 views and 2 comments)
« The Lisbon Treaty
is now dead », voilà ce que déclarait vendredi Eamon Gilmore,
leader du Parti Travailliste irlandais. En effet, après les « NON »
néerlandais et français de 2005 sur le traité constitutionnel, les
citoyens irlandais ont décidé de rejeter, par 53,4%, le Traité de
Lisbonne.
Alors que « le cadavre est encore chaud », certains échafaudent déjà des stratégies pour contourner le choix démocratiquement exprimé par le peuple irlandais. Personnellement, je considère que ce choix doit être respecté. En effet, je veux croire que le « NON » exprimé jeudi dernier n’est pas un « NON » à l’Europe mais avant tout la manifestation du désir d’une autre Europe.
Comment peut-on espérer convaincre les citoyens européens du bien fondé d’avancées contenues dans des traités alors qu’ils sont confrontés chaque jour à plus de « flexiprécarité » au travail, à la difficulté de couvrir leurs besoins... » read more ...
Tags: blogger of the week, citizens, EU, transparency
loading...