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News from PES activists
24 posts
Written by Nils Woerner
CV : I am a European social democrat living in Brussels. After my studies in Germany and Italy I conducted a stage (pronunciation: French / eurospeak for: work experience) in the European Parliament. Since the beginning of May, I am working for the PES communication team.
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Everything comes to an end - 25-07-2006 11:58:21 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
My dear activists,
As I will start another blog soon which will deal with the European single market and its implication for European social democracies, I am closing this blog.
With socialist greetings,
Nils -
PES welcomes Portuguese pension reform breakthrough - 12-07-2006 11:38:32 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
In Portugal, the socialist government has achieved a breakthrough on their pension reform together with the with the social partners: the employers and most trade-unions.
In his press release , PES president PN Rasmussen welcomed other parties to take up the compromise.
"The Portuguese reform agreement should inspire us all. Europe can only get back on track when people see that it is working to achieve a better future for everyone. It is the exact opposite of what is happening in some countries where neo-liberal excess has led to social divisions and a rise in extremist populism."
The main points of the reform are:
* changes in the pension calculation so that payments are based on income throughout the working life rather than only on the last 10 years
* greater equality in pension earnings with the introduction of maximum payments and new benefits for the poorest pensioners
* a crackdown on avoidance of social security contributions by employers and employees
What do you think of the compromise? Is it an example for other countries in Europe? How can we enforce the exchange of experiences between different European socialist parties? Discuss the topic on our forum . -
SOCIALISTS DISMAYED BY SLOVAK COALITION - 05-07-2006 11:01:52 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
The Slovakian socialist party SMER seems to insist on forming a government with the a populistic nationalist party.
It is very sad to see these events and I will leave the word to our official PES press release which speaks with open words:
SOCIALISTS DISMAYED BY SLOVAK COALITION
The Presidents of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist Group in the European Parliament , Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and Martin Schulz , have written a joint letter to Slovak Social Democrat Leader Robert Fico expressing their "gravest concerns, following your public announcement of the composition of the new Slovak government including SNS and HZDS."
The letter states "We consider the positions of at least one of your coalition partners incompatible with core social democratic values, including the respect of ethnic minority rights and democracy."
Read the full press release -
Shush! Don’t disturb the spies… - 04-07-2006 14:35:08 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
Regrettably we are already used to news stating that American civil services are breaking EU law. And even sadder is the fact that for example national European governments might have known when suspected terrorists were transported over their territories.
But are we already so fed up with this news that we are not even interested anymore, when the scandal gets worse? More than a week ago it has become evident, that the CIA has spied all European cross border bank transfers for a long time.
The Belgium Company swift is illegally helping foreign governments spying on our citizens and what is the public response: Shush! Don’t disturb, we are watching the world championships.
For those people who are still interested in human rights and civil liberties, here is an article of the European Parliament Magazine:
EU central bank ‘aware’ of swift data transfer
The ECB knew the Belgian based company Swift was transferring personal data to the CIA, say US officials.
According to US treasury secretary John Snow the ECB and the central banks of each of the G10 countries were aware the CIA was transferring money through the Belgium based company.
The European commission has insisted the Swift information handovers are not covered by EU law.
Meanwhile MEPs fear the case represents an infringement of privacy - the European parliament will kick off a debate on the issue next Monday.
Martine Roure, the French socialist group coordinator on civil liberties was surprised that MEPs had not been informed of the issue while working on the data retention dossier.
“It is surprising, to put it mildly, that the European parliament was not informed about this while examining this very issue in the Alvaro report – on data retention - due to be debated and voted on in next week's plenary session" she said.
"We will certainly use the plenary to demand clarification”.
The liberal democrat MEP, Jean-Marie Cavada, chairman of the European parliament’s committee on civil liberties has attacked the US practices as “imperialist”.
“The US has unilaterally broken fundamental rights and democratic principles” the Frenchman said.
regrettably the forwarding is not working, but you can copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200606/7aa4263b-a9f8-45fc-af86-202f889c6cb5.htm -
SMER-SD - 30-06-2006 14:56:13 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
A lot of people might have read the entry which has been here for 3 to 4 hours. As I have heard new information, I decided to change it:
Hello Pierre, I am very sorry for commenting your blog entry in English, but my French is still not good enough to show it openly...
For almost all socialists and social democrats I know, it is truly frightening to imagine a social democratic party basing its government on populist values. Relating to a possible future government of Slovakia including the Slovak National Party (SNS), I am very concerned.
I still hope that SMER-SD will not do this coalition. PES president PN Rasmussen stresses that the SMER-SD has been a reliable partner in the past and I still hope it to be a reliable partner in the future. Rasmussen "SMER-SD has made great steps, under your leadership, to highlight the stark social inequalities and attacks on welfare standards and rights which have been made by the former Slovak government and resulted in deteriorating cohesion in the Slovak Republic."
I have spoken with our Policy Advisor who is dealing with the region and he told me that the PES is fully aware of the problem and very closely watching the developments. -
Government in the Netherlands resigns - 30-06-2006 09:27:01 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
Yesterday evening the PES policy advisors received a letter from the international secretary of the Dutch PvdA, Marije Laffeber:
Dear friends,
After 2 full days of debates with the parliament, the Dutch government (a coalition of Christian Democrats, Liberals and Liberal Democrats) finally decided to resign this evening.
The reason being a conflict over the way the minister of immigration (Ms Verdonk, member of the Liberal Party) dealt with the Ayaan Hirsi Ali case, the past couple of months.
This means that the parliamentary elections, initially scheduled for May 2007, will take place at an earlier stage. The PvdA favors the idea of new elections being held sooner, rather than later. News on a possible new election date is expected to arrive during the forthcoming days.
With best regards,
Marije Laffeber
International secretary &
2nd vice-chair PvdA
The Netherlands
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