Friday 13 February 2009

Let's take Europe in a new direction

In reply to Sunder's message I invite Next Left readers to visit the Party of European Socialist's platform for the European elections. On Wednesday we launched our new campaign website - http://elections2009.pes.org/ - to promote our candidates and spread the word about our manifesto to every corner of Europe.

This document, which was developed with the involvement and support of the Labour Party, is our common programme for action. It states that "Our comprehensive progressive reform agenda to transform European cooperation - based on our values of equality, democracy, human dignity, solidarity, freedom and justice - can deliver the change which the people of Europe so desperately need."

More than ever before, the European elections are about political choices. The conservatives and the liberals have no coherent response on financial market reform and the economic recovery. They will be found out. The PES has a plan: coordinated investments in smart, green growth and regulation covering all financial players at European level and at global level.

The campaign website also includes information on candidates, a manifesto film, a photo competition, activists' photos and a blog allowing users to publish articles and comments.

1 comment:

Sunder Katwala said...

Poul

Many thanks for the message, and for supplying the link to the manifesto.

Martin Kettle of The Guardian who was a respondent to Gary said that he had not yet read the PES manifesto, but that the discussion would make him to do so, and that he certainly favoured a more political debate in Europe.

There was a sense that the PES has worked harder than ever to have a participatory process, but that it must now be the job of national politicians and parties to both promote a European argument in domestic politics, and to ensure European messages for the left come across, as it can not be done politically only by representatives at the European level. This is probably a challenge that is at least as difficult in Britain as anywhere else, and the question now is whether the crisis does get used as an opportunity to challenge what is widely thought to be an excessively cautious approach from what should be the leading pro-European party in the UK debate.