Blogposts by Tag: solidarity

  • Pour une Europe solidaire des pays en développement

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    Rating: 5/5 with 2 votes

    Published Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 09:49
    by Joel Cordier in EU in the world (283 views and 0 comments)

    Le mercredi 13 février 2008 a eu lieu la première rencontre des Artisans de l’Europe.

    Lors de cette soirée nous avons eu le plaisir d’accueillir Alain Hutchinson, parlementaire européen socialiste et Gérard Karlshausen, chargé des politiques européennes au Centre National de Coopération au Développement et membre du Board de CONCORD.

    Voici quelques propositions issues de cette rencontre.

    Les objectifs de santé et d’éducation doivent rester la priorité numéro un de l’aide européenne au développement.

    Avec ses 22,68 milliards...

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    Tags: blogger of the week, development, solidarity


  • Over population

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    Rating: 4.5/5 with 2 votes

    Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 09:42
    by Duncan Anderson Join PES activists in EU in the world (521 views and 0 comments)

    I don't want to suggest that PES/EU can solve this problem within one term of office. But I do think that the EU should start talking to other countries and organisations about dealing with the consequences of over population.

    Over population or having more people on the planet that it can sustain was a topic of discussion during the 1970s and China responded. I'm not saying that we or other countries should follow China's route.

    But over population is at the core of many global problems. We need to use artificial fertilisers and G.M. products to feed the world and even then a lot of people starve. There is insufficient water to both grow food for people and for them to drink. We can't provide enough energy for everybody without damaging the planet.

    Question, how do we address the twin problems of having a sustainable level of population on this planet? Answer, I don't know, but I'm interested in listening to there people's views.

    If it is decided to reduce the population we have to consider the demographics of having more older people who are above a working age - but still need food, water and energy - than younger people who would be generating income and therefore taxes to pay for the water, food and energy of the older people.

    But until we start discussing these concepts, both amongst ourselves and with other countries we're not going to fully understand the problems and therefore we won't find the correct answers.

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    Tags: energy, environment, food crisis, solidarity


  • Plutôt Schuman que Marshall !

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    Rating: 4/5 with 2 votes

    Published Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 09:34
    by yoan.abiven Join PES activists in EU in the world (485 views and 0 comments)

    S’inspirer de soixante années d’expérience de la construction européenne pour avancer un nécessaire projet d’Union Méditerranéenne est, à première vue, une idée excellente. Vigilance pourtant au moment de manipuler le vocabulaire et les méthodes de la success story européenne.  L’Europe des pères fondateurs ne se résume ni à quelque technique habile, ni à quelques mots magiques, pas plus qu'à des partenariats économiques tous azimuts. Elle oblige génétiquement à un partage de souveraineté sur ce qui fait mal.  L’Europe politique n’est pas née seulement et durablement des moyens financiers offerts par le plan Marshall. Elle s’est imposée dans le sillage d’un geste politique historique, celui de la déclaration Schuman. Or, cette initiative allait bien au-delà du champ économique. Il ne s’agissait pas d’annoncer la restauration du théâtre de Bayreuth avec des prêts bonifiés ! A cette époque, on voyait plus loin, on visait plus haut. On confiait à une autorité politique nouvelle ce qui avait servi à tant faire couler le sang des... read more

    Tags: citizens, economy, immigration, security, solidarity


  • Josep Borrell: We need to promote fair trade

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    Rating: 4.8/5 with 5 votes

    Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 16:37
    by Editor in EU in the world (665 views and 3 comments)

    Josep Borrell is Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish socialist party, PSOE. He was President of the European Parliament 2004-2007 and in this video he gives his ideas for the PES manifesto:



    Do you agree with Josep Borrell's suggestions for the PES manifesto? read more

    Tags: development, European Parliament, fair trade, solidarity


  • Ania Skrzypek: Decent work, decent life - decent policies to deliver!

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    Rating: 4.6/5 with 9 votes

    Published Friday, March 28, 2008 at 15:30
    by ania_skrzypek Join PES activists in EU in the world (922 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...

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    Tags: aid, blogger of the week, decent work, fair trade, globalization, poverty, solidarity


  • Scandinavian PES activists on European democracy and diversity

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    Rating: 3.5/5 with 4 votes

    Published Friday, March 14, 2008 at 11:50
    by AnneSofie Join PES activists in European democracy & diversity (661 views and 1 comments)

    Among the activities of the gathering of Scandinavian PES activists in Jørlunde, Denmark, was a discussion group on the PES manifesto theme 'European democracy and diversity':

    The workshop was introduced by Yildiz Akdogan, member of the Danish Parliament. She presented her thoughts on the dilemmas posed by our belief in democratic institutions governing by majority decisions while seeking to protect the civil and human rights of individuals as well as groups to live their life respecting their cultural heritage and personal life-choices.

    Our perception of modern society should include a compromise between individual and collective needs, strengthening democratic influence on European institutions while securing minority rights. The workshop participants believed that our family of political parties are the right actors to build this alliance, since our concept of human life and potential indeed always has been a much broader one than those of the right wing.

    Therefore, embracing and encouraging European diversity might actually be the key to enabling the common European identity we want the European citizens to feel part of. Instead of... read more

    Tags: activists, citizens, democracy, human rights, manifesto, media, political parties, solidarity


  • Victor Negrescu: Development cooperation in the EU

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    Rating: 3.4/5 with 5 votes

    Published Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 13:05
    by negrescuvictor Join PES activists in EU in the world (760 views and 1 comments)

    The EU member nations invest several million euros into the development cooperation and education cooperation all over the world. The main countries that benefit from these are those facing transition to democracy and third world countries.

    But does this work?

    Actually, on some levels it works and on others is far from happening. For instance, these investments are good for the countries where they go, but unfortunately the lack of a true EU common foreign policy and strategy are deterring the effects that these funds could have in those societies. For instance, the new European member countries have to invest several millions euros into the cooperation projects but the lack of information, mostly on the citizens’ level, creates several problem like how and in which direction they should invest these funds.

    Romania for instance is financing with around 30 millions euros per year projects involving these kinds of cooperation projects. The countries which benefit from these funds, thanks to the NGO’s which have developed their activity there, are countries from the region like Moldavia, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia … Shouldn’t we think at a common policy on the EU international cooperation? Shouldn’t we try to build up a common cooperation strategy that is in the benefit of all the European countries and NGO’s and most of all in the benefit of the countries that we try to help? Shouldn’t we promote... read more

    Tags: blogger of the week, development, solidarity


  • Eric Sundström: foreign policy according to our left side of the brain

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    Rating: 4.5/5 with 6 votes

    Published Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 21:00
    by Eric Join PES activists in EU in the world (930 views and 4 comments)

    Hello for the last time in a while!

    This is my last blog post as your guest blogger, and as promised I will write about ”EU in the world”.

    The big debate in Swedish politics this week was the yearly foreign policy debate in the 'Riksdag' (our parliament). Across the Atlantic, ”the Potomac Primaries” in dear old Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia pretty much locked up the presidential nomination on the Republican side for John McCain. Between those two events, a striking similarity must be underlined.

    It is often said that foreign policy never determines the outcome of elections, a ”truth” that had to be modified in the US after a the 11th of September 2001. In Europe, foreign policy is still rarely the dominating factor in our elections, but it sure can help to reinforce the general message of a campaign. An example is the general election in Sweden in 1985, when Olof Palme was our Prime Minister. A vote for Olof Palme, and thus the Social Democratic Party, was a vote on equality and solidarity in Sweden (in that campaign, more jobs, higher pensions, and increased funding for football clubs etc who organized activities for kids). But it was also a vote for something bigger; more equality in the world and an end to apartheid in South Africa. A vote on more equality, both in Sweden and abroad.

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    Tags: blogger of the week, disarmement, solidarity, USA


  • Le facteur russe

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    Rating: 4/5 with 3 votes

    Published Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 11:00
    by frederic.vareillas Join PES activists in EU in the world (763 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.

    Gerhard Schröder l'a fait et ce n'est pas pour rien : l'Allemagne a bien compris l'importance stratégique d'un partenariat avec la Russie ; ce pays a tout : du pétrole, du gaz, de l'uranium, de l'or, des diamants, une classe moyenne en expansion, une économie mixte, 10000 missiles nucléaires, des bombardiers...:

    La Russie est le futur géant de la planète;

    Ne la laissons pas basculer vers l'Asie, empêchons ensemble une guerre en Iran, négocions UE + Russie sur les tracés des pipe-lines...

    La prospérité de l'Europe et même sa survie en dépendent. Le monde anglo-américain atteint son crépuscule : ils n'ont plus de matières premières ou si peu, ils vivent à crédit et surendettés, ils font marcher la planche à billets sans limites, ils s'étouffent en Irak...

    Il est temps pour les socialistes européens de se tourner vers la Russie, d'ailleurs, les Russes sont des Européens. read more

    Tags: cooperation, energy, globalization, neighbours, peace, solidarity


  • Human Rights in the world: the PES must fight for all - don't forget LGBT!

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    Rating: 4.6/5 with 5 votes

    Published Friday, January 18, 2008 at 12:30
    by joelld in EU in the world (915 views and 0 comments)

    The work paper on "EU in the world" and the resolution "EU on the international scene", adopted by the PES Sofia Council in November 2007, make clear that the European socialists are committed to the promotion of a sustainable peace everywhere in the world. Among the means to achieve this goal, a very interesting and very right thing takes place: Europe must promote democracy and Fundamental Rights for all. The resolution is more precise, and mentions the rights of women, of migrants and asylum seekers. It emphasizes the importance of the recognition of the cultural diversity.

    Rainbow Rose believes the PES does well by focusing on this point. We would like to add that the promotion of Human Fundamental Rights must be advocated in all its diversity, and adress the civil society as well as the States, as a principle of the EU foreign policies. That’s the reason we would like to state clearly that the European Commission, in its internal relation tasks, should speak explicitly about the rights of lesbian, gay and transgender persons as part of the universal Human Rights (this applies, of course, to all other discriminated groups).

    Rainbow Rose would like to mention the read more

    Tags: equality, fundamental rights, gay, human rights, LGBT, peace, solidarity, women

    File: Yogyakarta_principles.pdf


  • Fresh water is for everyone?

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    Rating: 4.3/5 with 6 votes

    Published Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 14:55
    by Editor in EU in the world (927 views and 2 comments)

    Turn the tap on and you’ll have fresh water, right? According to the World Health Organization 14.000 – 20.000 people die every day because of contaminated water. No one can live without access to clean water – it is essential to survival and development.

    Public goods are goods that are – or ought to be – there for everyone to consume. NGOs and experts often argue that fresh water should be made a global public good – available for everyone on the planet.

    In your opinion should the PES manifesto suggest water as a global public good? Are there other goods that should be available globally? read more

    Tags: development, public services, solidarity


  • Mini planet - huge problems

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    Rating: 4.4/5 with 5 votes

    Published Friday, January 11, 2008 at 12:55
    by fairness Join PES activists in EU in the world (1008 views and 2 comments)

    This video has been going around the internet for a while. The idea is to consider how the world’s ‘goods’ would be distributed if we had a ‘miniature earth’ with only 100 people on the planet. It is really an interesting way of presenting problems such as poverty, AIDS and illiteracy.



    Such a video makes you feel privileged - privileged to be a ‘rich’ European who doesn’t have to worry about lack of water or children dying of AIDS. At the same time it’s frustrating – frustrating to be reminded of how far we are away from social justice.

    What should the EU do to ensure a more fair distribution of the world’s goods? Posing this question will not give me any points for originality, but it’s certainly essential to debate. Both on miniature and ‘real’ earth there is a long way to go before we can speak of social justice.

    At the same time we should not forget that social injustice prospers in Europe as well. The obvious case is the huge gap between Western and... read more

    Tags: aid, AIDS, human rights, poverty, solidarity


  • Stanishev: international solidarity

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    Rating: 4.3/5 with 6 votes

    Published Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 16:49
    by Editor in EU in the world (917 views and 2 comments)

    Sergei Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, was one of the party leaders who attended the recent PES Council in Sofia. We spoke with him about the Council days and, in particular, the outcome of the plenary debate on EU's role on the international scene:

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    Tags: council, manifesto, PES, solidarity


  • Europe is a source of hope

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    Rating: 3.1/5 with 7 votes

    Published Monday, November 12, 2007 at 16:58
    by anqa in EU in the world (818 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.

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    Tags: globalization, human rights, peace, solidarity


  • In the worldwide market, Europe is not to be sold

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    Rating: 5/5 with 2 votes

    Published Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 23:28
    by Sortir de l'Impasse Join PES activists in New Social Europe (1001 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...

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    Tags: globalization, solidarity


  • Decent Work Decent Life for all

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    Rating: 5/5 with 3 votes

    Published Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 23:57
    by Editor in New Social Europe (1527 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...

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    Tags: decent work, development, fair trade, globalization, solidarity


  • Karlstad, Sweden: progressive politics should address the big questions

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    Rating: 4.7/5 with 3 votes

    Published Monday, October 29, 2007 at 14:06
    by Editor in EU in the world (920 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...

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    Tags: democracy, globalization, peace, solidarity


  • Development policy: a hard nut to crack

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    Rating: 4/5 with 2 votes

    Published Friday, October 5, 2007 at 16:05
    by Editor in EU in the world (1363 views and 2 comments)

    Minimum wagesWe 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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    Tags: aid, development, fair trade, human rights, solidarity