Published Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 02:47
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (246 views and 0 comments)
Published Monday, November 3, 2008 at 22:19
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (302 views and 0 comments)
After “Cold War” US has all the while expanded its influence post-Soviet territory with aim to guide those region’s natural resources under US companies. As stakes have been control over the oil and gas of the Caspian Sea/Black Sea/Caucasus basin, and the control of multiple key energy pipelines criss-crossing the region. Economical interests have been linked to political game e.g. Nato enlargement. While EU has been more bystander Russia has during last couple of years weight down the scale in favour of its own interests by series of successful operations.
GUUAM & SRS GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) Group was founded 1999 with help of US to foster favourable conditions conducive to economic growth through development of an Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor. GUUAM was dominated by Anglo-American oil interests, ultimately purports to exclude Russia from oil and gas deposits in the Caspian area, as well as isolating Moscow politically. From its part GUUAM was designed to support sc. Silk Road Strategy Act – adopted by US Cogress March 1999 - which defined America’s broad economic and strategic interests in a region extending from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. The Silk Road Strategy (SRS) outlines a framework for the development of America’s business empire through development of an Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor. (More about this...
read morePublished Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 23:04
by
carl0s 
in Debate (552 views and 0 comments)
We face economic
challenges not seen for generations.
This is the time when we must state the case for socialism.
We have a clear decision. We can stand by, and leave the public to pick up the pieces afterwards, in what could be the worst recession since the 1930s.
Or we provide a clear alternative. And here are 5 points for discussion:
- establishment of fixed exchange rates with any fluctuations subject to 95% Tobin tax
- a massive public works program based on harnessing renewable energy sources and transport, bringing existing African-based solar projects forward
- all bank interest rates determined by the ECB or national bank
- bank statutes to contain elected representation and to represent all stakeholders
- immediate implementation of emergency anti-poverty programmes across the EU, including social enterprise and community projects, with emphasis on the young and the elderly
and I'm sure we can think of more...
read morePublished Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 15:53
by
Editor
in Debate (1066 views and 0 comments)
How best to “Save Our Planet”? What contribution can the EU make to this global challenge? In Vienna, PES activists from across Europe had their say on this crucial issue. Anton Muyldermans encouraged innovation in combining social and ecologic measures in efforts against climate change. Jan Hofste suggested the foundation of a European institute to coordinate these efforts and an innovative way to finance it.
Any suggestions on how to balance social and ecological policies? Would you like to see a new European institute to fight climate change?
read morePublished Monday, July 14, 2008 at 16:28
by
Editor
in Debate (1137 views and 0 comments)
In the panel
on “Save our Planet”, keynote speaker Michael Mueller, State
Secretary in the German Environment Ministry, explained that a
social-environmental policy could potentially garner support of
55-58 percent of voters. When social democrats and greens in
Europe achieve less than this result, this is due to the
outdatedness of the majority of the programmes of the political
left. According to him, the current environmental challenges need
to be combined with the legacy of left-wing policies. We must
take the lead in designing new strategies, following long-term
tendencies.
The classical welfare state was linked to the national state and to an immense exploitation of nature. Now, we have to construct a new vision on how a better life is possible. The Greens are focusing on how to combine ecology and economy, but the real challenge is of a social nature. In an increasingly unequal world, the richest fifth of the population spends only 2.5% of their income on energy; the poorest fifth spends 9%. Given these facts, Europe should not orient itself towards an American or Asian model.
Louis Lemkow, director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at...
read morePublished Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 09:36
by
Editor
in Save our planet (1293 views and 0 comments)
Last months, participants agreed on the need for a radical shift both on the production and the consumption side. The whole exploitation and processing of resources must be rethought.
Setting standards for measuring the risk of a pollutant manufacturing process or use of a product was proposed by several manifesto supporters. Another alternative is the use of a 'climate label’ for products which are, for example, produced in climate neutral and using energy efficient processes.
We need to change our consumer habits. According to Carlo Petrini, President of Slow Food, agricultural products should be produced and consumed locally in order to respect the needs of the farmers and the environment.
read morePublished Monday, June 9, 2008 at 16:50
by
SARNOUX
in Save our planet (829 views and 0 comments)
Notre avenir, notre unité, notre marché commun sont en danger du fait de la crise énergétique qui, si nous ne faisons rien, si nous ne proposons rien, détruira notre espace commun social et humaniste. Tout ce qui a été crée ou pensé volera en éclat et nous irons vers la guerre de l'énergie, la guerre de la faim et la guerre de civilisation par l'émergence des nationalismes renforcés.
Notre devoir est de proposer une Politique Energétique Commune pour donner, de nouveau, un visage, une âme et une vision pragmatique de l'Europe à nos concitoyens. L'Europe du concret et de la preuve doit être notre credo !
C’est pourquoi je propose de créer une Politique Energétique Commune afin de créer des solidarités solides et concrètes pour limiter l'impact du prix de l'énergie sur nos coûts de production ou d'exploitation afin de proposer des bases saines de concurrence avec des règles précises.
Cette politique doit permettre de sectoriser les...
read morePublished Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 10:36
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (882 views and 1 comments)
Last Wednesday
evening around 18h30. In the renovated Brigittines chapel in
Brussels Sp.a co-workers are getting nervous. This
evening we present our input for the PES manifesto. We have
worked hard to provide for an interesting program (attached), but
can it compete with the beautiful spring evening?
At 7 o’clock our fears prove to be unfounded. Sp.a International
Secretary Saïd
El Khadraoui can introduce the evening before approximately
80 people. We kick off with a debate about New Social
Europe. Europe has done pioneering work on certain domains,
but it turns out that a lot more can be gained at European level.
For example, the health services directive that we are still
waiting for. There is no discussion about the need for a more
social approach of the Lisbon objectives. But ambitious and
enforceable European objectives concerning social themes are a
logical next step. The conclusions run parallel: Europe has a lot
of instruments at his disposal, but lacks ambition and
decisiveness when it comes to social themes. Political action
pays off, that becomes clear in dossiers such as the adjusted
Bolkenstein directive. As...
Tags: democracy, energy, environment, health, political parties, transparency, treaty, welfare
File:
manifesto_spa_FR.pdf,
flyer_spa.pdf
Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 09:42
by
Duncan Anderson
in EU in the world (1170 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.
read morePublished Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 10:25
by
martina
in Save our planet (2146 views and 2 comments)
Climate neutrality, or, in scientific terms 'CO2 neutrality',
describes processes by which the global CO2 balance remains
constant (source: Wikipedia).
In my opinion this CO2 balance no longer exists – we need to
bring back this balance before we can actually maintain it. In a
time of increased environmental awareness, this worthy goal can
nevertheless produce unusual ideas.
Our lifestyles are often careless: jetting off to remote
countries, taking the car to go to the bakery around the corner,
using the tumble dryer and all the other small things which makes
life easy. These actions need no longer give us a guilty
conscience. By spending a bit of money you can compensate for
your polluting sins. For example, take a look at Atmosfair,
Greenmiles, The Climate Company or My Climate. There are probably
more such projects, especially outside Germany. Yet a study from
Tufts
University in Boston revealed that only three of thirteen
such ‘compensation agencies’, including Atmosfair and My Climate,
are actually recommended service providers.
When travelling by plane, Atmosfair can help you obtain a cleaner conscience.
You can pay when you book, but also calculate and compensate for
your CO2 emissions later. When typing...
Tags: blogger of the week, climate change, CO2, electricity, energy, environment
File:
IT_climate_DE.pdf
Published Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 15:12
by
Wind Energy
in Save our planet (1535 views and 0 comments)
The world is facing
an energy and climate crisis. Globally, the energy sector emits 26
billion tonnes of CO2 each year and electricity production alone
accounts for 41% of emissions. The International Energy Agency
expects CO2 emissions in 2030 to have increased by 55% to reach
more than 40 billion tonnes of CO2. The share of emissions coming
from electricity production will increase to 44% in 2030, reaching
18 billion tonnes of CO2. Europe is going to be importing a growing
share of its energy at unpredictable but most likely higher prices,
from unstable regions, in ever-fiercer competition with the rest of
the world and at staggering environmental cost. Spare electricity
generating capacity is at a historic low. Europe has to invest in
new capacity to replace ageing plants and meet future demand. In
the period 2005-2030, the EU needs to install 862 GW of new
electricity generating capacity. 427 GW of generating capacity will
be retired in the EU and an additional 435 GW will be needed to
satisfy the growing demand for power. The required capacity exceeds
the total capacity operating in Europe (723 GW). Satisfying our
energy needs over the coming decades will be a big challenge. For a
region that currently imports 56% of its energy – and is on track
to reach 70% in the next 20 to 30 years – the challenge is big. Our
own...
read more
Published Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 11:00
by
frederic.vareillas
in EU in the world (1152 views and 1 comments)
Hi,
Recently, the French President took a trip to Washington to say to the US congress how he "admired John Wayne". I won't elaborate.
Then John Mc Cain came to Paris and that same President promised to send more French troops to Afghanistan.
Next, the French President is preparing an alliance with Britain to develop Nuclear technology, build and export nuclear plants with the British and only the British.
He baptized a new submarine with sixteen nuclear missiles on board ("the Terrible", by the way).
I have just one thing to say : My God ! What does Germany think about that ?
Regards,
Frederic (Paris)
read morePublished Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 10:16
by
cafeneaua.politica
in Save our planet (1423 views and 2 comments)
The most important matter of sustainable development doesn’t support the quantity of economic growth but the quality of an environmental, economic, social, and cultural development.A sustainable community effort consists of a long-term and integrated systems approach to developing and achieving a healthy community by balanced environmental, economic, social, and cultural issues. The Romanian (European) Social Democrats advocates a sustainable development of our planet and not the destruction of the environment and our resources.
It is necesary that the price of the different resources must cover all calculatable external costs. The government has to add the calculated charges so the different resources get the same conditions on the market. If the charges are creating an income, this income is to restitute to the inhabitants and to the companies (the same restitution per inhabitants or worker).
As basic measures we can talk about sustainable development when total production of the region is sufficient to provide for the inhabitant’s needs without requiring more resources than the area can regenerate (energies,...
read morePublished Monday, March 10, 2008 at 10:12
by
frederic.vareillas
in Save our planet (1171 views and 3 comments)
Published Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 04:16
by
frederic.vareillas
in EU in the world (1313 views and 10 comments)
Hi,
Dmitri Medvedev has just been chosen by 70 % of the Russian voters to become next President of Russian federation (with Putin as Prime Minister).
1/ This election has been only PARTLY democratic but a vast majority of the people in Russia are supportive of Putin's policies and are behind Medvedev (more than 60% of th total Russian population. So, Medvedev IS representative of the russians as much as Bush is representative of the americans.
2/ Russia has 10000 nuclear warheads targeting western Europe because of the American project of an anti missile "shield" (!) in Poland and Chzec Republic.
3/ America is a debtor nation , diving into a great depression, with no cash or oil left,
whereas Russia is on the rise : A new middle class, Oil, Gas, Coal, Gold, Diamonds, A new banking, trading, commercial and economic booming system.
4/ (and most important) : Look at your geographical maps : Kaliningrad, Saint Petersburg, Moscow and most of the big Russian cities ARE in EUROPE.
5/ A bit of history : The forefathers of the white Russians where the "Varegs", Vikings coming to the region of Moscow around the tenth century A.D.
Russians Are europeans, and live mostly on the European continent.
That is to say : Most of the modern european Russians have SWEDISH ancestors : Sweden happens to be a member of the U.E. and is getting ready to join the € zone and the Schengen agreement.
6/ USA are...
read morePublished Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 18:32
by
rikkeindenmark
in New Social Europe (1385 views and 0 comments)
The afternoon of the Danish conference on the PES manifesto ended with a plenary where the four work groups presented a ‘top 3’ of priorities for their manifesto theme. Here are, from my view, some of the most interesting ideas brought forward:
Published Friday, February 29, 2008 at 15:44
by
frederic.vareillas
in Save our planet (1313 views and 4 comments)
All right, my friend,
You are concerned about the waste. So, all I can tell you is: What do you suggest we do?
We have two years left before oil and gas cost ten times more
than today; solar energy and wind turbines can supply maximum 7
percent of our total consumption of energy; oceans are littered
with plastic bags, wrappings, and are 80 percent DEAD; the sun is
getting hotter; we are killing the great forests to get wood to
burn (and transform into paper); Earth's temperature is rising 2
degrees Celsius (which is huge) due to CO2 and methane.
What would you say if we could recycle and reutilize nuke waste
and nuke plants?
Think again: We have two years in front of us before the great
depression.
What do you suggest we do?
Friendly,
Fred
Published Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 12:26
by
Editor
in Save our planet (1389 views and 1 comments)
Published Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 14:47
by
reimannsdavid
in Save our planet (1283 views and 2 comments)
Hey!Published Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 10:24
by
frederic.vareillas
in New Social Europe (1247 views and 3 comments)
Hi,
American scientists have just filmed an electron in motion. Watch
it on Yahoo
News. It is time for us, Europeans, to pay our scientists a
decent wage, and pay them well. It is time for us to fund
correctly our science universities.
Who's going to find the next source of energy?
Yours friend,
Frederic
Published Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 10:16
by
frederic.vareillas
in Save our planet (1146 views and 2 comments)
Dear friends,
I would like to share two other readings with you so as we're
able to think Europe's near future through:
First: There's a very interesting issue of "L'Ecologiste" #24;
Oct-Dec 2007 (French version of the original "The Ecologist",
London, UK) about the biofuel hoax and slowing our cars' speed.
Also look at the present issue of "The Ecologist": "The end
of food as we know it" (London, 2008). You should also have
a look at the website: www.theecologist.org – it’s interesting
(English and French versions available).
Second: A French essay by Eric Orsenna and Le Cercle des
Economistes: "Un monde de ressources rares" (2008,
paperback, French only). They offer some economical and political
ways to deal with scarcity.
Your friend,
Frederic (Paris)
Published Monday, February 25, 2008 at 17:22
by
frederic.vareillas
in Save our planet (1297 views and 2 comments)
Dear friends,
I have read your remarks about my
post.
True. Nuclear power is not 100 percent safe but which energy is?
Coalmines ? Gas? Forget it: To many deaths. And oil is the
poison, our lethal addiction. I remember Chernobyl but, compared
to a French reactor, Chernobyl 3 was a poor piece of junk. Risk
zero doesn't exist.
Do we really have a choice? For the generation to come (25
years), nuclear power is the only possible choice unless we want
to be in a new dark age (back to middle ages). Do you want this
regression? Again, do we have a choice? We should have changed
and adapted 25 years ago when the oil prices quadrupled. We
didn't. Europe needs power - Europe needs electricity to avoid
wars and to keep civilized.
As to the disposal of nuclear WASTE I recommend again you read
Sir Jim Lovelock's book "Revenge of Gaia". This book is
a project to save civilization from the dark age. While you're at
it, you should also read "Vers un monde de ressources
rares" by Eric Orsenna and Le Cercle des Economistes" (2007,
paperback).
Then you'll understand the urgency of the present Europe's (and
Earth's) situation. Good luck, keep it up!
Your friend,
Frederic (Paris)
Published Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 12:40
by
jonworth
in New Social Europe (1187 views and 3 comments)
Free trade
between Member States is one of the principles on which the
European Union is founded. I profit from this personally, being
able to sell website services in the UK, Belgium, Germany and
Sweden. It's good that a company from Ynys-ddu can sell its
widgets in Ystad without hindrance.
Europe-wide markets have helped many large firms to develop - plenty of us make calls with our Vodafone mobiles, fly Easyjet and drink beers brewed by Inbev. Regulatory frameworks established by the EU help these firms to develop.
Yet what about services traditionally provided by the state such as refuse collection, water and energy services? Street sweeping in Camden, London, the underground in Stockholm, trains in northern Netherlands, buses in Pontypridd and sewage works in Budapest are all operated by Veolia - a logo that's appearing all over Europe. SUEZ is active in many countries in similar sectors - water, waste, recycling and energy...
read morePublished Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 15:55
by
Eric
in Save our planet (1678 views and 3 comments)
Hey!
It’s my third day as your guest blogger, and today I would like
to present some specific policy proposals. And I will start with
a political issue very close to my heart: the environment.
None of my parents (Bo and
Gunnel) were members of a political party when I
grew up. However, my dad Bo was very interested in politics in
general, and environmental issues in particular. He started
working with green issues already in the early 1960s, when
Rachel Carson’s book ”Silent Spring” served as one
of the first alarm bells. At the time, my dad did some research
into why some birds’ eggs were too shallow and broke before the
new little bird was born. The reason was that the birds were fed
with foodstuffs containing mercury.
Ever since 1960s, we have gradually become better at ensuring
that growth must be ecologically and socially sustainable. If
growth means that birds are fed mercury, our society will not be
sustainable in the long run. The EU has been good at slowly
transforming societies in the right direction in this way, and
Mark Leonard wrote a fantastic little book about
how the EU's ”soft power” is so much more efficient than the...
Published Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 11:42
by
Editor
in Save our planet (1978 views and 2 comments)
When speaking to Ilmar
Reepalu, Mayor of Malmö, Sweden, and member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions, you realize
that mentality is really the key to change when it comes to
combating climate change. Since the mid-nineties Reepalu has been
working to change Malmö from an industrial town to a modern, green
capital of the region. And with great success – Malmö has received
numerous prizes for its green projects, most recently the
prestigious ‘LivCom’ award in London. Published Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 11:00
by
frederic.vareillas
in EU in the world (1275 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.Published Friday, February 1, 2008 at 12:50
by
Editor
in New Social Europe (1990 views and 4 comments)
The Spanish Socialist
Party, PSOE, has launched its manifesto for the
Spanish general elections on 9th March. It happened at a conference
this Saturday at which PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen declared
“We cannot have a Social Europe without a Social Spain”!
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