Reaching across the Atlantic to the US Democrats

PES President Poul Nyrup
Rasmussen was in Washington and New York in mid November, discussing the
crisis with politicians and economists including Howard Dean, John Podesta,
Paul Volcker, Barney Frank and Joseph Stiglitz, as well as with Dominique
Strauss Kahn at the IMF. In late October he was in California meeting
economists and other experts at the Universities of Berkeley and Stanford
including Nobel prize winner William Sharpe. Read his blogs from the USA

PES Leaders Emergency Summit

Europe's social democratic,
socialist and labour parties met at an emergency meeting in Brussels ahead of
the EU informal summit on the financial crisis which took place on 7
November. They agreed a declaration setting out the action
needed to re-launch the European economy and new regulation of the financial
market. See what Elio Di Rupo and Jiri
Paroubek - Leaders of our Belgian and Czech Parties - said at the meeting

PES pressures Sarkozy & Barroso

PES President Poul Nyrup
Rasmussen sent an open letter to President Sarkozy and met European
Commission President José Manuel Barroso, following the PES Leaders'
Emergency Summit. Rasmussen told the two Presidents about the PES leaders
plan for simultaneous investments to create jobs and relaunch Europe's
economy, as well as regulation of the financial market at EU level. President Sarkozy got the same message by letter.

European Commission recovery plan lacks ambition

At the end of October the European Commission released a recovery plan
which was notable as much for what it failed to propose as for what it
actually contained.

Sarkozy overrules McCreevy on new regulations

The European Commission's chief
free-market fundamentalist, Commissioner McCreevy, was finally overruled by Sarkozy and
Barroso in his long fight against regulating hedge funds and
private equity in any new EU legislation. Subsequently, the Commission
published its 2009 work programme which promises a package of measures
covering all financial actors including hedge funds and private equity.

End tax avoidance

Governments who invested
taxpayers' money in financial market rescue should lead an international
effort to crack down on tax avoidance by financial institutions said PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

Socialist PMs call for roadmap to avoid mass unemployment

Socialist Prime Ministers and
Deputy Prime Ministers meeting on 15 October, just before the first EU Summit
to discuss the crisis, asked the PES to draw up common proposals for
new financial market regulation and to counter the recession. The next day
the PES Presidency backed the idea of making a roadmap for
urgent action to prevent mass unemployment. To watch Alfred
Gusenbauer, Chancellor of Austria, Sergei Stanishev, Prime Minsiter of
Bulgaria, and Wouter Bos, Finance Minister of the Netherlands speaking at our
Prime Ministers meeting on 15 October click here. For more on beating the crisis hear what our American friends said
when they joined us in Brussels in September.

International plan for global financial reform

World leaders at the G-20 summit
in Washington on 14-15 November drew up a plan based on five major principles to reform
the global financial markets. A review of the powers, responsibilities and
resources of the IMF will be discussed at the next G20 summit, which will be
probably held in London on April 30, 2009.

Agreement on a common EU line on financial reform

On the 7 November, EU heads of
state and government agreed on a five-point programme asking for better
regulation and market transparency ahead of a global summit in Washington. EU
leaders also agreed on the need to take measures to address a possible
recession in Europe. In this respect, on the 26 of November the Commission
will unveil a 'comprehensive recovery plan', which will include targeted
short term actions to add to the medium and long-term reform initiatives
under the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs.

COMING UP

PES Council in Madrid where PES
leaders will adopt on 1 December the PES Manifesto for next year's European
elections and debate the financial crisis on 2 December. You can follow it
via live streaming on our website www.pes.org