PARTY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS : PES LISTS TEN PRINCIPLES FOR A NEW SOCIAL EUROPE'.

PositionParty of European Socialists

"Tomorrow's Europe will be social or nothing at all," was a refrain at the seventh congress of the Party of European Socialists in Porto (Portugal) on 7 and 8 December. So much so that members of the European Socialist family adopted a resolution on ten points for creating a new social Europe'. While the text is intended to present a common itinerary to "respond to the concerns of European citizens," it actually depicts only a limited image of the basic report on which it is based and consequently has become just a list of not very new principles.

The basic report in question was co-written by Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission, andaPoul Nyrup Rasmussen, the recently re-elected President of the PES. The two men started work on the project 18 months ago based on three premises: that there is a consensus on the three main challenges for the future (globalisation, technological changes and demographic evolution), that it is necessary to get inspiration from those countries which have already introduced reforms, and that new challenges resulting from society's evolution (such as the needs of the growing number of single parent families) need to be taken into account.

The two authors have produced a complete report of over 150 pages. Based on this document, a resolution was drafted during the congress and was voted for unanimously by Socialist activists. It contains ten recommendations for member states to work towards this new social Europe'. For Jacques Delors, the first three are the most important: rights and obligations for everyone (even society's elite' - MDs and the banking sector - have obligations); full employment and investment into human capital (the knowledge society').

In his speech, Delors strayed from the limits of the resolution to refer to his report. aHe reiterated his belief that it is impossible to talk about a social Europe without mentioning the Economic and Monetary Union. "For seven years, the euro has protected but not stimulated". In fact, "we are asking too much from the currency and not enough from the economy". The result is that growth has slowed down and not enough jobs have been created. So the need is there to make fundamental changes: coordinate macro-economic policies and...

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