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Published Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 21:59
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (92 views and 0 comments)
Coming week will be show again one significant step in
international politics and especially in Western Balkans. 1st at
its plenary session called for 8th October, the 192-member UN
General Assembly is to debate Serbia’s draft resolution calling
for an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on
Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence. 2nd EU tries again
find some common position about Kosovo case and the forecast is
that EU member-states will probably abstain from the vote at the
UN. 3rd Portugal, Macedonia (FYR) and Montenegro are under huge
pressure to recognize Kosovo independence.
UDI and ICJ in UN
Serbia has filed a draft resolution in which it asks from the UN
General Assembly to seek an advisory opinion from the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on the legality
of the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) of Kosovo.
Belgrade has proclaimed two objectives with this initiative. The
first, immediate goal is to have the ICJ provide its stand on the
UDI and to stop the recognition of Pristina’s act by UN members.
The second, mid-term objective is to have Belgrade and Pristina
go back to the negotiating table on the status question.
Last week a trial vote revealed 120 of the 192 members gave their
backing to Serbia's request to refer the matter to the ICJ,
reported the German daily Handelsblat.
Why they say “no” to Kosovo’s...
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Tags: Balkans, crisis management, ESDP, Kosovo, separatism, Serbia, UN
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Published Monday, June 9, 2008 at 16:30
by
Editor
in EU in the world (629 views and 0 comments)
The last months of the debates on EU in the
world have again brought many proposals to include in the
Manifesto to the 2009 European elections.
Global Disarmament
Several participants recommend that the Manifesto mentions
Europe’s responsibility to ensure global disarmament and arms controls. Measures could include working towards a nuclear
weapons-free Europe, reducing military expenses, focusing on
conflict prevention, revitalising international processes and
agreements (such as the non-proliferation and the CFE treaties),
and banning small arms and light weapons (SALW) exports to
unstable regions. But participants
also agreed that the EU should develop
its own military structures outside NATO to be able to
independently carry out missions covered by the Petersberg tasks.
Also, EU member states should press the US to restrain from
engaging private contractors in conflict
regions.
Towards democratic international...
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Tags: activists, barometer, EU, neighbours, poverty, social dialogue, UN, USA
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Published Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 09:23
by
carlosmoret 
in European democracy & diversity (469 views and 0 comments)
Europe, this beautiful experience of a better place to live in.
We inherit the word 'democracy' for our political system, and
heritage is what Europe is all about. The word comes to us from the
Republic of Athens, but modern day democracies took a different
form.
There was the DDR and there is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Is
that what we want? A chorous will answer 'no!'
It is the "democracy" of member states that we inherit.
Is the Mao-Mao war or the indepencence wars of Madagascar or
Algeria what we want? The Warsaw ghetto? No, although that is our
heritage. Is it sending our troops to foreign lands to impose
'democracy' with missels? Is Abou-Graïb or Guantanamo the way we
want to reach domestic peace?
The principles of Modern Democracy are probably good, but in
practice, 'La Raison d’Etat' those reasons that the ruler invoques
when it abuses of it’s power, puts aside our fundamental rights for
a superior interest, that of the State. And it trickles down to
petty abuses of individual rights in the hands of a street
policeman.
Fortunately, the EU has rather clean hands, not so the individual
Member States that arrive with blood stained hands. And I don’t
just mean those who joined recently, I also have in mind the
Founding States.
In the aftermath of WWII, that last battle of the European Civil
War, the European experience starts whith the will to finish
with...
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Tags: citizens, democracy, UN
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Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 10:12
by
markus.austria
in EU in the world (789 views and 1 comments)
In my post I would like to adress the following questions as
proposed in the discussion paper (available at the
top of this page or here):
2. What sort of UN reform should the EU
propose?
I think that - in the longterm - the UN Security Council should be
replaced by the UN General Assembly as the central decision making
body within the UN umbrella. To this end, I think it will be
necessary to elect UN representatives in direct elections to arrive
at a sort of 'world elections' in a manifestation of the supremacy
of democracy over other, more exclusive forms of government.
4. How should the EU work efficiently with
NATO?
I think we should think about developing military structures on a
European level outside NATO in order to indenpendently carry out
missions covered by the Petersberg tasks and the UN. Also, I think
the EU member states actively engaged in the NATO should press the
US to restrain from engaging private contractors in conflic regions
(keyword: Blackwater).
8. What actions should be undertaken by the EU to achieve
the UN Millennium Goals?
I think that the sole establishment of a headline number, such as
0.7 percent of GDP spent on Development Aid, will not be sufficient
to face the challenge of economic (and social!) prosperity in...
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Tags: activists, Africa, defence, democracy, development, multilateralism, peace, poverty, UN
File:
PES manifesto consultation.pdf
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Published Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 09:57
by
Editor
in EU in the world (995 views and 0 comments)
The debates on the theme 'EU in the world' continue on a speedy track.
During the last month a lot of progressive view-points and ideas
have been aired - also on the international responsibilities of the
EU and of each and every European citizen. Here’s an account of the
debate since the last 'EU in the
world' barometer:
A more transparent and accountable EU foreign
policy
A new debate has been started by social
democratic European foundations on the need to have a more
transparent and more accountable EU foreign policy. The aim is to
ensure that European citizens are aware that, besides the gaps that
are always highlighted in the news headlines, the EU is quite
successful in its external policies. More democratic control is
also required, including through the European Parliament.
Development - a focus on brain drain and decent
work
Participants are concerned about development as a crucial aspect of
the EU’s external activities. Brain drain is a key issue, with
Scandinavian PES activists considering that knowledge
sharing, education, and brain drain must be given a lot of thought
in EU development and foreign policies. The PSOE proposal...
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Tags: barometer, decent work, defence, democracy, fair trade, Russia, UN, USA
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Published Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 11:33
by
Editor
in EU in the world (1118 views and 2 comments)
Participants in the EU in the world debate seem to agree that the EU
should play a greater role in international politics and some
offered specific proposals on how this could be done.
Development - a lot more than economic growth
Development has been a central issue of the debates. Pattheact noted the need to deal with the emergence of
new donors, such as China in Africa. This new aid and loans come
without conditions of good governance, and therefore can have a
negative impact in developing countries, perpetuating the corrupt
systems. Eurodad proposed that the EU adheres to a set of
responsible financing standards, to avoid the resurgence of the
spiral of unpayable debt in developing countries. Our previous
blogger of the week Victor Negrescu also insists on the need for more
coherent development cooperation strategies to improve the
efficiency of development aid and ensure its focus on the needs of
local populations. On a related topic, Kim noted that the PES should take part in the
discussions on globalisation,...
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Tags: barometer, climate change, development, human rights, peace, UN, USA
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Published Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 09:53
by
Christian Casenave
in EU in the world (1130 views and 1 comments)
Nous avons besoin d'élargir nos réflexions sur les frontières
pertinentes de l'Union Européenne, qui a vocation à coopérer avec
tous les continents de notre monde multipolaire. Après la chute du
mur de Berlin, l'élargissement à l'est a été un grand succès et
comme il n'est pas réaliste d'ouvrir les frontières vers le nord,
ni vers le sud, pourquoi ne pas envisager un élargissement à
l'ouest, vers les Antilles, le Canada, les Etats-Unis d'Amérique ?
Une Union Européenne à l'échelle de l'Occident pourrait développer
des relations plus ambitieuses et efficaces avec l'Inde, la Chine,
sur le plan culturel, politique, économique et social, en relation
étroite avec l'ONU; elle serait mieux préparée, aussi, à
l'encadrement politique de l'OTAN.
read more
Tags: UN, USA
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Published Friday, December 14, 2007 at 11:03
by
Editor
in Save our planet (1133 views and 2 comments)
Today is the last day
of the UN climate conference in Bali. The big question
that has driven the talks in Bali is whether world leaders can
agree on a ‘new Kyoto’ – find common grounds for a new
international agreement on how to deal with climate change.
One of the major topics was how to deal with the reduction of
forests. Forests are a major ally in combating global warming,
since trees and other green plants take CO2 out of the air. When
forests are cut down and trees are burnt it has a doubly damaging
effect – not only are there less trees to remove CO2, but the
carbon contained in the trees is released into the atmosphere.
In Bali environmental ministers agreed that financial rewards for
not cutting down trees should be a part of a new global climate
deal. Money should be ‘bait’ for developing countries to preserve
their rainforests.
At first hand this may sound like a good solution. However, NGOs
have aired concern that financial compensation is just a convenient
excuse for rich countries not to take actions against emissions
within their own boundaries. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth
have, for example, suggested that instead of rich countries buying
their way out of emissions’ reductions...
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Tags: climate change, CO2, UN
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Published Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 10:43
by
Editor
in EU in the world (1200 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 more
Tags: conflict, crisis, globalization, multilateralism, UN
