PES Manifesto

manifesto2009 barometer: New Social Europe

Published Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 16:51
by Editor (1536 views and 1 comments)

The first months of debating New Social Europe have really brought up a lot of priorities and proposals for the PES to consider.

Tackling the consequences of globalization has been a recurring theme: Esther from Barcelona has given us a great summary of the challenges we face. Many new ideas have come out of the discussion: regulating sovereign wealth funds wanting to buy up strategic European companies; ensuring hedge funds are subject to the same rules concerning transparency and respect for workers’ rights; allowing workers who face redundancy due to a takeover bid and outsourcing of production to acquire the factory and start up on their own as a cooperative. All very interesting!

How to create a humane and responsible common European migration policy, as proposed by Yohann from France, is also being actively debated at European level due to the legislation being adopted on the EU blue card and the upcoming French Presidency of the EU. Sarkozy has promised to adopt a European Migration Pact – but let’s see what he comes up with… Socialist governments such as that of José Luis Zapatero in Spain are at the forefront of the debate and this is certainly a priority worth considering for the PES manifesto.

Another important issue in the New Social Europe debate has been ensuring the future of our welfare states in Europe. Here, the verdict given by you, our bloggers and PES activists, seems to be the following: the PES need to make sure that Europe protects public services and ensures universal access! As PES activist Lubraneski has pointed out, it’s fundamentally wrong that some people should have better access to health care than others. A group of cervical cancer protection campaigners have also pointed out that Europe can play a valuable role to ensure equal access to cancer prevention programmes across the European Union. Let’s continue working on these ideas!

Another topic worth working on further is how Europe can help working families reconcile work and family life better. The EU already has a parental leave directive which created this right for the first time in some European countries. Now the question many people are asking is whether it should now be updated to give fathers better opportunities to take care of their children – this we have also debated on Yourspace. The EU’s child care targets may also need reinforcing, not just in the level at which they’ve been set, but more importantly how the EU helps achieve them! All these issues are worth considering further…..

One last note on anti-discrimination (thank you Rainbow Rose!). The EU has already gone some way into legislating against discrimination – racial equality and employment directives – but there may be more that can be done. Lets discuss it together!

What do you think – does this sum up the debate on New Social Europe? Did we miss any topics or conclusions? Let us know in a comment. The Yourspace team looks forward to continuing the debate!

The Yourspace Barometer
Over the next weeks the Yourspace team will take the temperature of the PES manifesto debate so far. A series of ‘Yourspace Barometer’ posts will give the highlights of the posts and comments we have had since the campaign start in October 2007.

Tags: barometer, discrimination, diversity, gay, globalization, health, investment, LGBT, women