Published Saturday, July 5, 2008 at 11:51
by
negrescuvictor 
in New Social Europe (738 views and 0 comments)
I have participated
in a lot of debates regarding Europe but unfortunately everyone
is tending to forget the rural and small cities communities. We
often talk about agriculture but we don't discuss enough the
problems of peple living there.
In Romania around 40% of the population lives in rural areas and in countries like Poland or Bulgaria the percentage is similar.
PES activists Romania organised an internal debate on this and we have identified some of their problems:
- difficulties regarding the access to high level education
- exclusion from technological evolution
- development problems / sanitary access
-
read morePublished Friday, July 4, 2008 at 10:23
by
franciscopolo
in New Social Europe (929 views and 0 comments)
As you all know the
European Central Bank has its main goal to control the interest
rates, that is to say, the price of money in the eurozone. The
matter is that the Federal Reserve of the United States is
keeping an interest rate much lower than the European ones. While
we are having a 4% interest rate, in the States the interest rate
is around 2%.
This has several consequences but the most important ones are that our companies can’t invest so they can’t become more competitive and that our products become more expensive abroad Europe so our companies become even less competitive.
If we add to all that the fact that oil is having peak prices almost everyday so everything is becoming more expensive for them, the result is easy to see: they are trapped.
In order to face this situation “the European Central Bank should ask itself not only about inflation but also about economic growth”, Mr. Sarkozy said. “You can double interest rates and that will not make go down the price of the Brent barrel”.
This is a position held by Sarko. I wrote about it yesterday in my blog. And then I wondered…
What’s our political response to the economy crisis?
read morePublished Friday, July 4, 2008 at 10:12
by
negrescuvictor
in European democracy & diversity (764 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 Eastern European issue but an European issue)
-...
read morePublished Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 10:57
by
rikkeindenmark
in European democracy & diversity (1245 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 experiences from the primaries social networking sites
are likely to play a...
Tags: blogger of the week, campaigning, elections, forum
File:
social_networks_campaigning.pdf
Published Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 10:50
by
chourka
in European democracy & diversity (669 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 voire de remettre en cause la Liberté de circulation des personnes (une des...
read morePublished Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 10:01
by
rikkeindenmark
in In the spotlight (843 views and 0 comments)
Not long ago I learned
about the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions. To be
honest I didn't know about the group's existence until a year ago
(ignorance is not always bliss), but it's a forum for local and
regional politicians to meet and discuss EU politics. It's an
interesting organization because many EU decisions impact greatly
on the local level - and the PES Group is a chance for local and
regional social democrats to meet and work together to influence EU
policies.
I admit that this was a digression from the topic that I actually wanted to address in this post! The reason why I brought up the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions is that the group has its own PES manifesto consultation - and in this consultation there's a fifth point of discussion, in addition to the four 'traditional' themes - namely the gender dimension.
I agree very much with the view-point of the PES Group - that there's a significant gender aspect to all four manifesto themes - and I hope the 'pervasiveness' of gender issues will be taken into consideration when the PES manifesto is drafted over the coming months....
read morePublished Friday, June 27, 2008 at 10:45
by
negrescuvictor
in New Social Europe (899 views and 2 comments)
The perspectives
regarding Europe seems to illustrate unfortunately the existence
of two different European visions, an Eastern and a Western point
of view. These differences can be easily seen in issues like
workers migration, economical delocalization, taxes, and the
enlargement process.
Workers migration
East: for countries from this side of Europe the freedom of movement is what Europe is all about. The people who migrate from our countries do so to build themselves a better live but also to help there families back home.
West: unfortunately the Eastern European migrants are presented as a problem and we as socialists have trouble fighting this point of view
Solution: building up a common point of view regarding migration- informing our national communities regarding the other European communities migrating and explaining the good effects that this brings on the economy
Economic delocalization
East: most of the Eastern European countries are in need of foreign investments to develop the national economy and to all that is needed to attract...
read morePublished Friday, June 27, 2008 at 10:34
by
rikkeindenmark
in European democracy & diversity (1064 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”Published Friday, June 27, 2008 at 09:53
by
chourka
in New Social Europe (781 views and 1 comments)
Voilà une idée
originale portée par les camarades du SP.a qui mériterait d'être
étudiée sérieusement et pourquoi pas reprise dans notre manifeste
électoral.
De quoi s'agit-il exactement ?
On sait que les forces de police sont coordonnées au niveau européen par EUROPOL pour ce qui concerne les questions liées aux trafics en tout genre, le terrorisme. Bien que cette institution naissante aurait besoin de moyens pour fonctionner efficacement, elle a le mérite d'exister.
Ce que propose nos camarades belges, c'est que dans le domaine social, une sorte d'inspection européenne du Travail soit mise en place et que celle-ci puisse contrôler le respect au sein des Etats-membres des droits sociaux dans le but d'éviter le dumping social.
Dans de nombreuses contributions, revient également l'idée d'une harmonisation vers le haut des droits sociaux. Parfois avec des variations comme celle sur l'imposition d'un salaire minimum européen. Le SP.a ne précise pas comment il l'imagine son application quand la Fédération de Paris indique qu'il doit être calculé en fonction de l'échelle nationale des...
read morePublished Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 14:34
by
franciscopolo
in European democracy & diversity (721 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 intergovernmental), the EU gains in its capability to create an international interlocution by creating both the positions of the permanent President of the European Counsel and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, among other things. But there is something much more important.
This Treaty is specially important because it makes the EU to be more democratic. It creates the civil initiative so a million of citizens will be able to suggest the creation of new rules; the European Parliament, our direct representative in the EU gains power and almost nothing can be...
read morePublished Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 09:39
by
negrescuvictor
in European democracy & diversity (764 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 and attract the public opinion’s attention on them. We have to stop waiting...
read morePublished Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 09:33
by
rikkeindenmark
in New Social Europe (1315 views and 10 comments)
And now for
something completely different – as Monty Python would say! I’m
moving away from gender issues and on to a completely different
topic, namely education.
I work in the university sector, where tuition fees are currently
a burning hot topic for debate. In my home country we have a long
tradition for free – or rather publicly funded – higher
education. The argument is that when higher education is free
everyone – regardless of social or economic background – has the
opportunity to take a university degree. Basically, as Danes see
it free education is a question of equality and equal access to
education.
However, in globalization the Danish higher education model is
challenged: Denmark is one of very few countries in the world
which does not have tuition fees (correct me if I’m wrong, but I
think there are only 10 countries worldwide with free higher
education!). University education is increasingly becoming
‘internationalized’: more and more universities cooperate across
borders to offer joint degrees; more and more students go abroad
on exchange or take a full degree abroad, etc. With more
cooperation across borders it gets more difficult for Denmark to
stick with the ‘no fee’ policy – since many of the countries we
cooperate...
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 12:47
by
negrescuvictor
in In the spotlight (1002 views and 2 comments)
While reading the
contributions submitted by several PES member parties or by
different NGOs I have noticed something that I thought has
disappeared. What is that exactly? The desire to
change the world, to ask ourselves what is wrong and, thus, to
think about improving the current situation.
We are far away from living in a perfect world and sometimes it can be difficult to imagine that thousands or millions of people are starving, getting incurable diseases, people who don’t have access to the basic survival needs, not to talk about the lack of education.
Europe is far from having resolved its own problems but the power of our political (social and economic) Union resides in the value of solidarity. Countries and regions have been reconstructed based on this solidarity, people have known prosperity and wealth, the living conditions have improved and no one can say otherwise. People from countries like Ireland, Greece, Spain, and Portugal know what I’m talking about… Solidarity is difficult when this means giving a bite of your wealth but you always have to remember that this is what EU is all about: mutual help when you are facing a bad economic situation.
The current economic situation that is getting generally worst is...
read morePublished Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 09:36
by
franciscopolo
in New Social Europe (845 views and 2 comments)
Last week we had a
very good article at the Spanish PES Activists site that I would like to
share with you. It was writen by one of our activists in Madrid,
Nebulosa, who preferred to use a nickname for work related
reasons. The article treats an important subject:
read moreA public debate has opened up again about the new way to govern Europe. Three countries held a referendum on the old treaty for a European constitution; and while it was approved in Spain, it was turned down both in Holland and France. The new Treaty of Lisbon is not being ratified via referendums but is subject to the approval by the different Parliaments of the member States. One exception should be noted: Ireland.
Ireland was the only country where a referendum was called, and its citizens decided to reject the Treaty. Maybe Irish voters did not take into consideration all the benefits that they have obtained from Europe, which have made their remarkable development possible. But what is happening in such Europhile countries as France and Holland for them to turn their back on building this new European Union?
Many citizens are having opposing feelings about how to build that Europe. On the one hand, they receive positive messages (equality of 400...
Published Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 09:48
by
franciscopolo
in New Social Europe (1020 views and 1 comments)
On 10 June the Labour
Ministries of the European Union agreed the possibility of
enlarging the work journey to 60 hour or, eventually, 65 hours if
the company and the worker agree to do so.
The reaction in Spain: this is a clear attack to the Social Europe we are trying to achieve and we are not going to assume it easily.
Today in Europe, the maximum work journey is set at 48 hours per week. It was set this way by the International Labour Organisation in 1917. According to Lourdes Muñoz a recognised socialist blogger in Spain:
This Directive will eliminate the right to rest during the continued working journeys, it attempts against the safety and health at the work place and difficult the conciliation of personal and working life.
The promoters of this initiative affirm that this Directive will implement the freedom to individually negotiate the length of our own working journey but as we all know theory is theory and there will be no negotiation. Individualisation of the working relations will break balance.
Fighting in favour of...
read morePublished Monday, June 23, 2008 at 18:26
by
chourka
in European democracy & diversity (1244 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 socialistes, nous avons une longueur d'avance par rapport aux Conservateurs et autres...
read morePublished Monday, June 23, 2008 at 14:05
by
rikkeindenmark
in European democracy & diversity (1095 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 online petition or join the
read morePublished Monday, June 23, 2008 at 10:50
by
Editor
in In the spotlight (617 views and 0 comments)
Meet Rikke, Victor, Aleksander and Francisco during the PES activists BLOGFEST! For the next two weeks and until the 6 July, they will publish articles and comments here on Yourspace on some of the contributions delivered and several other themes they are keen to write about, such as the new social problems in Eastern Europe or gender equality!
Rikke Skovgaard Andersen is a young journalist from Denmark and PES activist. Currently she is working with international higher education in Copenhagen. Rikke is a member of the Danish Social Democratic Party and the Danish Social Democratic Youth.
Victor Negrescu is the National Coordinator of PES activists in Romania and he works on several campaigning issues for PSD Romania. Victor worked as a journalist for important media in the country.
Aleksander Glogowski is in charge for communications at the Fédération du Parti Socialiste in Paris, where he also promotes European issues. He worked...
read morePublished Monday, June 23, 2008 at 09:11
by
Joel Cordier
in In the spotlight (884 views and 0 comments)
Je vous propose un texte rédigé par Antonio Carmelo Scifo et Renato Sallustio, militants PSE de Charleroi.
Par ailleurs, je vous invite à découvrir la contribution rédigée par leur groupe pour le manifeste.
La chute du mur de Berlin qui symbolisait la division de la planète en deux camps adverses a fait naitre un espoir de communication et de compréhension réciproque. Cet évènement pouvait même être perçu comme l'occasion de réaliser sur le plan économie et sociale ce que certains intellectuels nommaient une "troisième" voie qui serait en quelque sorte une synthèse, selon l'acception hégélienne du terme, dans laquelle se résoudrait la relation dialectique entretenue par les deux anciens systèmes. Cette synthèse aurait pu réunir les préoccupations relatives aux droits sociaux de l'un des systèmes et l'attention aux libertés individuelles propre à l'autre camp.
read morePublished Friday, June 20, 2008 at 11:22
by
Joel Cordier
in In the spotlight (721 views and 0 comments)
La fraude fiscale,
pour les seules recettes TVA, est estimée à près de 60 milliards
d’euros pour l’ensemble de l’Union européenne. Cette fraude est
particulièrement préjudiciable pour le budget de l’UE puisque la
TVA constitue une part ses recettes.
Une grande partie de ces 60 milliards, ainsi que d’autres revenus qui échappent à l’impôt, se retrouvent dans des institutions financières situées dans des paradis fiscaux.
Selon l’OCDE, un paradis fiscal (bancaire ou judiciaire) est caractérisé par :
- une taxation quasi inexistante ;
- un manque de transparence ;
- l’absence d’échanges d’informations entre le territoire concerné et le fisc du pays de résidence du contribuable ;
- la possibilité d’élire une résidence fiscale dans ces pays sans avoir de véritable activité économique.
En résumé, les paradis fiscaux permettent d’échapper à l’impôt mais également de réaliser des opérations financières douteuses. Ils sont un vecteur majeur pour le blanchiment de l’argent de la drogue, de la prostitution, du...
read morePublished Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 17:29
by
Joel Cordier
in In the spotlight (901 views and 1 comments)
Les Etats Membres au
sein de l’UE ont des systèmes fiscaux relativement hétérogènes,
fruit de l’histoire et des traditions nationales.
Aujourd’hui, les principales règles européennes sur la fiscalité visent à :
- harmoniser les taux de TVA ;
- éviter la double imposition des sociétés, notamment pour des entreprises mères et filiales basées dans plusieurs Etats membres;
- harmoniser la fiscalité de l'épargne, les citoyens européens étant désormais libres de placer leur argent dans tout pays de l'UE ;
- établir une coopération européenne dans la lutte contre les fraudes fiscales.
Globalement, notamment du fait de la règle de l'unanimité, l'harmonisation en matière de fiscalité reste limitée.
L’absence d’une véritable politique fiscale commune en Europe favorise la concurrence entre les états membres, chacun voulant attirer chez lui capitaux et/ou entreprises. De plus la rigidité des règles en matière de TVA ne permet pas aux états de répondre à certains défis sociaux (application de taux...
read morePublished Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 08:04
by
Joel Cordier
in EU in the world (1192 views and 4 comments)
Par 369 voix pour, 197
contre et 106 abstentions, le Parlement européen a adopté, ce
mercredi 18 juin, la directive sur le retour des immigrés illégaux.
Ce texte qui a été massivement soutenu par la droite prévoit :
- une durée de rétention excessivement longue ;
- la détention d'enfants en centres fermés ;
- l’absence d'obligation pour les États d'organiser une assistance juridique gratuite ;
- la possibilité d'expulser des personnes gravement malades vers des pays où elles seront privées des soins pourtant nécessaires à leur survie ;
- l'interdiction de séjour sur le territoire européen de 5 ans pour toutes les personnes qui ont reçu un ordre de quitter le territoire.
La seule porte de sortie face à ce texte scandaleux est la faculté laissée aux Etats membres d’appliquer des normes plus favorables.
Il y a des jours où j’ai honte d’être citoyen de cette Europe là.
Allez, courage, la lutte continue !
read morePublished Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 09:49
by
Joel Cordier
in EU in the world (809 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...
read morePublished Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 09:28
by
Joel Cordier
in European democracy & diversity (899 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 élémentaires (alimentation, logement, chauffage,…) et à des services qui...
read morePublished Monday, June 16, 2008 at 09:42
by
Editor
in In the spotlight (699 views and 1 comments)
Desmond O’Toole, member of the Irish Labour Party, was blogging
last week on the Irish referendum! Thank you Desmond for your
insight views!
Joël
Cordier’s our new blogger of the week. Joel was International
Secretary of the Mouvement des Jeunes Socialistes and member of
ECOSY in the
90s.
He was candidate on the list of the Parti Socialiste during the European election campaign 2004.
As from 2007, he is member of the executive committee of the Parti Socialiste (PS) in Namur and of the Federal Committee of the same region.
In 2008, Joel started working at Artisans de l’Europe, an initiative undertaken by the Belgium Parti Socialiste and developed under the framework of Artisans du Progrès, a project aimed at debating the manifesto2009.
Welcome to Yourspace, Joël!
read morePublished Friday, June 13, 2008 at 08:52
by
Desmond O'Toole
in European democracy & diversity (771 views and 1 comments)
Well the polls have closed and the ballot boxes are now safely stored away until they are opened at 09h00 (10h00 CET) on Friday morning. As I predicted, a lot of the discussion in the media this evening has been on how many people turned out to vote. If you remember I said that the general view is that a turnout below 40% would suggest a NO vote, while a turnout above 45% would indicate a YES vote. Well, the national broadcaster, RTÉ, is reporting turnout in the region 40-45%, so I'm afraid I cannot offer even an educated guess as to how the Irish people have voted in this referendum! I will be attending the count in Dublin and we are expecting initial results to be available by lunchtime and a formal announcement of the result by about 17h00 (18h00 CET).
One possible indicator of the result is the view of Irish bookmakers. They are offering better odds on the YES side winning and as everyone knows, bookmakers don't like to lose money. It would not be the first time that Irish bookmakers knew more than Irish politicians and journalists about how the people have voted. However, all of this is just idle speculation. We will know on Friday afternoon whether Lisbon will proceed smoothly to ratification across the EU or whether there will be a crisis for the French Presidency of the EU in Brussels.
... read morePublished Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 09:49
by
Desmond O'Toole
in European democracy & diversity (647 views and 0 comments)
From 7h00 to 22h00 on
Thursday (8h00 to 23h00 CET) polling stations across Ireland will
be open and the great game of democracy will be played out with
pencil and ballot paper. Three million citizens across 43
constituencies will vote Tá (YES) or Níl (NO) to amend our
constitution and allow our government to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.
There are over three million citizens registered to vote in this
referendum, the largest number ever in the history of the State.
And the smart money says that voter turnout will be the key to the
final result.
The Irish people had to vote twice to ratify the Nice Treaty. In the first referendum in 2001 the Irish people voted NO by 529,000 votes to 453,000 on a turnout of 35%. At the second referendum a year later we voted YES to Nice by 906,000 votes to 535,000 on a much larger turnout of 49%. Almost all of the extra turnout was YES voters who had abstained in the previous referendum. The big question is whether the same pattern will repeat itself this time? If the NO side has so confused and alienated people from the EU that many decide not to vote and we have a low turnout, then we will lose the referendum and Ireland will fail to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. If, however, the Irish people refuse to be misled by the NO side and instead recognise that Lisbon is important for...
read morePublished Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 12:11
by
Desmond O'Toole
in European democracy & diversity (750 views and 2 comments)
Three wise men
(yes, men, I'm afraid!), step forward, button up their jackets and
prepare to argue the case for Lisbon. In this photo are the leaders
of the three largest parties in Ireland. From left to right are
Eamon Gilmore of the Labour Party (PES/PSE), Taoiseach Brian Cowen
of Fianna Fáil (UEN) and Enda Kenny of Fine Gael (EPP-ED). They
appeared at a joint press conference yesterday to make a united
call for a YES vote and today, the last day before the
referendum, I'd like to inform everyone of the YES
campaign.
When I described the NO campaign yesterday I talked about the lessons that we need to learn about how disconnected a large minority of citizens are to the EU and the need to put the real benefits of EU membership to our citizens rather than spend so much time discussing institutions and processes. However, I noticed in the Irish Times this morning that Daniel Cohn-Bendit (G-EFA) has joined Bernard Kouchner in attacking Irish democracy. He is reported as calling the Irish ungrateful to Europe, our referendum a "folly" and that, "... if one says NO, one leaves Europe." It is precisely this sort of language and these sorts of threats that socialists and social democrats across Europe must avoid when addressing European citizens. It is precisely...
read morePublished Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 09:45
by
Desmond O'Toole
in European democracy & diversity (758 views and 3 comments)
With three days to go
to the referendum on Thursday Bernard Kouchner (French Foreign
Minister) made an unwelcome intervention in the debate in Ireland
claiming that if the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty we would face
"... gigantic incomprehension" from our European partners and "...
would pay a high price." Given M. Kouchner's incomprehension it is
perhaps worth examining why the Irish might vote NO on Thursday and
whether this might throw some light on why citizens across Europe
are often lukewarm in their support for the EU and for our
party.Published Monday, June 9, 2008 at 10:14
by
Desmond O'Toole
in In the spotlight (735 views and 2 comments)
Dia dhaoibh a
chairde agus fáilte ó Éireann! Hello to everyone and greetings
from Dublin! I'm delighted to have been asked to blog this week
from Ireland because this is the week that the Irish people vote
in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. During this week I will
be reporting from the Labour Party campaign in Ireland and
discussing the key themes and issues that we are addressing.
To begin, however, it might be useful if I sketch the background
to this referendum. When we Irish people gave ourselves a
Constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) in 1937 we determined that
any changes to that Constitution could only be made with the
explicit consent of the people in a referendum. As the Lisbon
Treaty involves the transfer of a number of sovereign powers to
the European Union the Irish people have to be consulted directly
for that to happen.
Ireland has benefitted immensely from our membership of the EU.
Our economy and infrastructure have grown rapidly in large part
due to the Single Market and structural and cohesion funding. Our
agriculture and rural communities have secured long-term success
and security due to the Common Agricultural Policy and other
farming supports. Our environmental and social policies have been
greatly enhanced due to legislation from Brussels. But...
Published Monday, June 9, 2008 at 09:25
by
Editor
in In the spotlight (568 views and 0 comments)
Thanks to Richard
Falbr, Czech MEP, for blogging on Yourspace last week!
This week Desmond O'Toole, Irish Labour Party, will be sharing
his thoughts on the PES manifesto. He is currently the Chair of
the Dublin Mid West Constituency Council and was a Director of
Elections at the General Election in Ireland last year. Desmond
is heavily involved on the YES side in the referendum campaign to
ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The referendum will take place
Thursday, 12 of June.
Welcome to Yourspace, Desmond!
read morePublished Friday, June 6, 2008 at 11:14
by
Richard_Falbr
in New Social Europe (699 views and 0 comments)
In 1990 the Czech
trade unionists had to solve a difficult task: how to transform or
create trade unions which should be recognized by trade unions in
democratic states?
In the totalitarian regimes the trade unions were a transmition belt of the communist party. They existed as a kind of social institution organizing holidays and socialist emulation. They were something like the vertical unions in Spain during the Franco's regime. There was no collective bargaining, and the only positive element of their attitude was the free of charge representation of the members before tribunals in labour disputes. After the great General Strike in November 1989 Strike Committees were created and then the Coordination Centre of the strike committees was created in the capital of Moravia, Brno. So a parallel structure with the former communist "Revolutionary Trade Union Movement" was born. At congresses in January 1990 sixty unions were established. Then in March the Czechoslovak confederation of trade unions was created. The Confederation became the member of the ICFTU in May 1999.
The important result of the Congress which was free, democratic and supervised by observers from trade unions of de
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