ECOSY at 50th Anniversary of PES Group, 7/10/2003

PES Group celebrated its 50th anniversary on June 23rd 2003, and, to celebrate this important event for the European Socialist family, PES Group organised an extraordinary meeting on 7 October 2003 in Brussels, with three eminent Socialist personalities invited as speakers: Jacques DELORS (former President of the European Commission), John HUME MEP (Nobel Peace Prize Winner) and Aleksander KWASNIEWSKI (President of Poland). The meeting will be closed by Enrique BARON CRESPO and former Italian Prime Minister, Massimo D'ALEMA.

In this context, PES Group had foreseen the participation of 25 young people under 25 years old from present and new EU Member States and had honoured ECOSY with the coordination of this part of the event. Eight young participants had 1.5 to 2 minutes to give comment or statement on one of the topics discussed (Peace, Prosperity and Stability) and made a related question to one of the speakers

The Questions which adressed (almost final version):

1. Question on GATS
Youth organisations all over the world watch the GATS process very closely. We feel these discussions are not held in an open and transparent way and that they are not based on democratic values.  As young people we are mostly concerned about free access to education and to water. We are fearing that both issues are being treated as goods, while they are actually basic human rights and they should be treated consequently.
As socialists we can not accept the liberalisation in these fields.
Our question to the PES group would be what it will do to guarantee that in the future we will have free access to education and water.

2. Question on peace
For the last ten years ECOSY has been trying to gather young people around the table working for peace. In such regions as Kosovo, the Middle East and Iraq we managed to reach common positions, approved of by all the parties involved. For us young people, military action is the last option to be taken. We urge for a strong Common Foreign Policy, not to counterbalance the United States but to create a real international community based on democratic principles, international law respected by all and transparent institutions.  Prevention and economic cooperation are effective tools for the creation of a conflict free world.
The constitutional project elaborated by the Convention proposes a European foreign Affairs minister. This is an important step forward. However don't you think Mr Delors that keeping majority voting in CFSP will block any real progress in this matter?

3. Question on the Convention
As Young European Socialists we strongly advocate a Federal Europe and we feel that the initiative to draft a first European Constitution and the adopted method are very valuable to reach this goal. Making the Charter of fundamental rights legally binding, smplifying EU decision making process and giving more power to the EP are the positve results coming out of the discussion. Nevertheless, this is not the end but can only be a beginning. We socialists fight for a social Europe and for this we would like to see the majority voting procedure being widened to social, fiscal and environmental issues. We support the idea of a citizen's initiative, but real democracy means giving the EP an intiative right in all matters and would make the parliament what it should be: the voice of the European people.
How does the PES-group think that the IGC should evolve and how can we progressive forces seeing that we are not in majority, make sure that our ideas are present in the debate?

4. Question on the unity of the PES-group
The PES-group is a large parliamentary group, and as such it has a lot of potential. But in spite of this there are occasions, issues where the party is divided, where national interests become more important than the unity and team spirit of the group. Consequently, the group’s power diminishes, and the potential to achieve our goals is not being used. We believe that the PES-group should act more firmly, with clear and common positions on the issues and questions as a group. This is imperative if we want to be more productive within the European parliament and also for the people of Europe to see in the PES-group a political option they can trust to make a change for better.
Our question for you is can you achieve a consensus to make this work? We Young European Socialists have experienced that having long and productive discussion in order to reach the more consensual solution and the subsequent voting is the best way to empower our position as a group. We believe that this is the best approach that the PES Group has to acquire a stronger voice, for its own sake and for Europe’s.

5. Question on a Social Europe
« Europe for the people, not for the profit » was the theme of the last ECOSY-Congress. This sentence embodies our idea for a better Europe. As young socialists we believe that a true European Union is based on principles and values such as democracy, solidarity, peace and freedom.  We ‘d like to stress out that what really concerns us are employment, education and environment policies so that we can create the concept of social Europe and not an economic or profitable one.
We ‘d like as well to welcome the countries that were part of the enlargement process and we ask you to show them this concept: that after the economical process there’s another step to take: the creation of a social policy and consciousness. What this countries expect from EU is solidarity and a vision on how to establish these social values and principles, but mostly we have to strength the point that with this process we’re trying to merge people, not countries; protecting each others interests.
Regarding all this we’d like to know what we can expect from the PES Group, which level of commitment and if you’re thinking about proposing a social agenda with specific parameters to fulfil in parallel to the one that was created for the economic merging process.

6. Question about the distance between people and PES
One common problem that all the representatives here today have is the distance between the European Institutions in general, and the PES Group in particular towards the citizens. There’s no consciousness that links us all together as European Citizens and we’re wasting the opportunity to work together with this young people present today; as well as with young people all around Europe to attract and convince them that’s important to participate in the European discussions.
But the contrary is also true, we need young people to be given a floor, a voice and to be able to participate in the decision making process.
Unfortunately, initiatives as the Youth Convention were not taken seriously and so, we’d like to know how do you regard the youth participation and which concrete measures are being taken specifically to establish and promote the will expressed in the Convention about youth participation in the European construction.

7. Question about equal opportunities
Unfortunately, we as Young European Socialists still have to fight for women’s rights (look around this room, how many women are here?).
Nowadays women still aren’t properly represented in politics and Parliaments, still facing that they don’t earn as much as their male colleagues. We don’t think that the fight for equality ended in the 70’s, we believe that there is still a lot to do.
What are you going to do to make the EU-law - that men and women should earn the same for the same work- become reality?
Solidarity has always been the biggest value of ECOSY, how will you support the rights and lives of women all around the world, specially on the developing countries, keeping in mind that they are the first ones to suffer on the most serious problems; such as poverty?

8. Question about Shengen and Non-Shengen countries
At this moment and in the near future the biggest problem will be free movement between Shengen and non-Shengen countries. We should think about integration not only inside the European Union, but also between the Union and it’s neighbours too.
The Shengen is like a wall which will obstruct cross-border cooperation and economical development in the Shengen neighbouring countries.
Closing ourselves from the outer world is not an answer. We cannot fight problems like illegal immigration by building barriers. No one leaves their home if they have a good standard life. Instead of closing our borders, why not aid the other countries and eliminate the problem at its root?
What actions are being taken into this direction?

• ECOSY 15
• Past ECOSY activities
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
• Campaigns