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Party
of European Socialists' Newsletter

23
September 2010

HOT TOPIC

Conservative
infighting dominates Council

Last week’s European Council saw
tensions escalate between conservatives on the Roma issue. The
fight among right-wing leaders during the Council meeting
deflected attention from much needed reform on economic
governance to tackle the crisis in Europe.

Social
Europe

Socialist
PMs call for Economic Governance ‘that ensures fair
growth’

The Prime Ministers of the
Party of European Socialists (PES) call the
European Council to set a EU
commitment to ‘fair growth’. The initiative,
agreed after intensive discussions between the PES
Prime Ministers, asks the Governmental
leaders, EU finance ministers and the European
Commission to deliver a more balanced economic
message than simply ‘austerity cuts and
sanctions’.

World

Millennium
Development Goals - Let’s keep our commitment to all
people around the world

On 20 September, in New
York a UN High Level Meeting in New York called by
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will assess progress
on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The EU
Presidency (particularly under the Spanish
Leadership) and the EU High Representative
Catherine Ashton have been highly committed to a
strong EU position. The EU Conclusions document of
June 2010, laying the foundations of the EU
position vis-à-vis the high-level meeting, have
been passed onto current EU Presidency holder
Belgium. The Belgian Presidency has stated that
the summit is the primary development policy
objective of its 6-months rotating EU
presidency.

Social
Europe

PES
in Brussels protest against Sarkozy anti-Roma
policies

More than
300 attended a rally in Brussels to protest
against the xenophobic, anti-Roma policies by Mr.
Sarkozy’s Government. The event, staged outside
the French Embassy, was organized by the European
Anti-Racism Network. The PES strongly supported
the event with over 50 activists attending.

PES

High-level
meeting between PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and
new CHP Chairman Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu

On September 16th 2010, PES
President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen met with the
recently elected CHP Turkey Chairman Mr. Kemal
Kılıçdaroğlu. Discussions at the bilateral meeting
focused on Turkey’s accession to the EU, the
referendum on constitutional reform of September
12 2010 and increasing PES-CHP cooperation.

EDITORIAL

Burnt
by the politics of fear
Poul Nyrup
Rasmussen, PES President

Last week’s European Council saw an
embarrassing row between conservative politicians,
particularly Sarkozy and Barroso. This shows just what
happens when you play with the politics of fear. On the
French side, there should never have been this cynical
appeal; it was a clear attempt to satisfy those on the
less palatable end of the French political spectrum. The
role of the European Commission and particularly José
Manuel Barroso and his conservative ally Viviane Reding
showed just how damaging a delayed reaction can be. It
is true what they say: fear causes paralysis – and the
politics of fear risks just such a freeze at EU level.

News from PES members

France
says ‘no’ to austerity measures. Europe will follow

Polish
SLD party making significant gains in polls

PES President attends Partito
Democratico’s Festa Nazionale

PES
supports German coalition for a Financial Transaction
Tax

PES
Secretary General Philip Cordery presents “Answers
from European Social Democracy” to the crisis in
Toulouse

Forthcoming events

23 September - Modernizing
politics network

24 September - PES Communicators
seminar

29 September - ETUC Action
Day

Re:new

My
PES

Economy

Social
Europe

Environment

World

PES
Women

PES

More
news

PES Women

PES
congratulates Michelle Bachelet’s appointment as head of UN
Women’s’ Body

Former President of Chile, Michelle
Bachelet, has been appointed as head of the recently
established UN Women Body. The new UN body will group together
all UN structures dealing with gender equality. Congratulating
Ms. Bachelet, Zita Gurmai, the President of PES Women stated
that; “I am convinced that Michelle will contribute towards a
positive and progressive development of global gender equality
issues and women’s rights such as for the Beijing Platform and
the Millennium Development Goals. She will also continue to
act as a role model for all women and girls across the
world.”

Economy

EU
institutions must stop ambiguity on Financial Transaction Tax
and send a clear message

After the State of the Union address by
Commission President Barroso and the ECOFIN ministers’
meeting, European Institutions failed to deliver a clear
message on a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). The Party of
European Socialists (PES) had demanded a speedy decision on a
FTT to help raise new revenue, as the effects of public budget
cuts begin to be felt.

World

“Recovery
must focus on jobs” - PES welcomes conclusions of IMF-ILO
high-level conference

In a historical meeting
organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
International Labour Organization (ILO) and hosted by Norway
Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, high-level participants
called for a strategy that focus on job-creation to fight the
crisis.

Environment

Environmental
Recovery – International Cooperation Works!

In environmental as in economic policy
conservative and neoliberal short-term thinking has dominated
for far too long. “Make a profit today; worry about tomorrow
later” seems to remain as their philosophy. On the financial
markets this has led to the biggest crisis since the great
depression. The same is true for the environment: the
obsession of many countries to accelerate growth by accepting
the destruction of our ecosystems and climate change is
steering us into a dangerous dead end street.

Economy

Growing
coalition urges EU finance ministers to move on a Financial
Transaction Tax

A broad coalition calling for an
European-wide Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) staged an action
outside the meeting of EU Finance Ministers on 7 September, in
Brussels. The group, made up of NGOs, political organisations
-among which the PES - and trade unions, called on EU
Ministers to recognise the merits of an FTT, particularly as
austerity measures begin to be felt throughout the EU.

Social
Europe

Commission
fails to present clear strategy to tackle youth unemployment –
European Socialists call for concrete measures to address
crisis effects on young people

Joint Press Release - ECOSY -
Young European Socialists and Party of European Socialists
(PES)

The Party of European Socialists (PES)
and ECOSY - Young European
Socialists criticized the European Commission’s flagship
initiative “Youth on
the Move” as insufficient to successfully address the
discrimination of young people in Europe. Poul Nyrup
Rasmussen, PES President, underlined: “The crisis affects in a
particularly harsh way young people and if the European
Commission doesn’t present a clear strategy to address this,
we risk losing an entire generation to youth unemployment and
youth poverty. I call on the Commission to introduce a youth
guarantee, offering young people a job, training or further
education within four months of leaving school. The labour
market for young people also needs to be strengthened: more
jobs must be created, including tailor made jobs for young
people along with incentives to hire young people. Interns
need to be better protected, by adopting European minimum
standards for internships.”

PES Women

Maternal
health investment is key to fully achieving the Millennium
Development Goals

On 22-23 September world leaders will
gather in New York for a Summit on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). As the deadline to fulfill the
MDGs approaches, PES Women welcomes concrete actions to tackle
the MDGs challenges. Based on the PES Women campaign “My Body
My Rights”, Socialist Secretary of State for Equality, Elza
Pais (Portugal), has launched an initiative to raise awareness
of the risks women face in pregnancy and childbirth.

Economy

European
Socialists present concrete measures to tackle the crisis

French MEP Pervenche Bères (Socialists
& Democrats Group) presented a report
on the effects of the crisis and how to tackle it. Mrs Bères
outlined concrete measures to fight the crisis, focusing in
particular on new revenue sources – such as a financial
transaction tax (FTT).