Thursday, March 13, 2014

A Manifesto For Europe

 
The Party of European Socialism (PES) is made up of 33 political parties within the European Union, including our own Labour Party. On the 1 March in Rome, the PES adopted its Manifesto for the coming European Elections. It is divided into the ten sections, as below -

1. It is time to put jobs first.
2. It is time to relaunch the economy.
3. Putting the financial sector at the service of the citizens and the real economy.
4. Towards a Social Europe.
5. A Union of equality and women's rights.
6. A Union of diversity.
7. A Safe and Healthy life for all.
8. More democracy and participation.
9. A Green Europe.
10. Promoting Europe's influence in the world.

It is a progressive document and it can be found via the link here

Labour is not planning to publish its own programme until it starts its own short campaign for the European elections. This could still be a few week's away. Why at least, in the meantime, does it not push the above manifesto? It has already been launched by our sister parties in numbers of other European Nations.  If, however, Labour plans to ditch some of the PSE's programme, then we are entitled to know why.

On the PSE, see here.

2 comments:

Keir_H said...

Hi Harry,
I was surprised to learn from our recent Discussion Group meeting Labour was still discussing our European manifesto and unsure whether it would appear!

So I agree with your sentiments to publish and promote the PES programme for the upcoming Euro MEP elections. All 10 points listed are solid Labour aspirations for this election and possibly 2015 General Election...

These elections are very important as we see in the news Ukraine has split and with a soldier being killed the chance for further escalation is very high. We need Europe to act in these difficult times and the election gives it all the more meaning to fight for our Labour socialist ideals.

Regards Jon W

Harry Barnes said...

Jon: This weekend I came across a leaflet first published in February by the European Parliamentary Labour Party/Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament. I assume that the later are the PES. It is a progressive document. The Labour Party keeps circulating all kinds of things to its members via email (all of which ask for money). Why have they not circulated the leaflet I refer to?