At European level. The Party of European Socialists (PES) will be in possession of its work programme for the next five years by the end of the week. The Socialist Prime Ministers, the Socialist-leaning European Commissioners and the leaders of national Socialist parties will be in Madrid on Friday and Saturday to approve it (see our bulletins of 23 November, p.10, and yesterday, p.6). There, they will share their "hopes and desires" for the political and economic choices of the Union, so that the European Commission can take these on board when it puts together its five-year programme.
José Manuel Barroso is not a Socialist, and nor is the Commission he chairs. "The Commission cannot be said to be on the Right, the Left or in the middle. It reflects the political pluralism which exists in Europe", said Mr Barroso. The PES has absolutely no intention of dictating Europe's agenda. However, it will fight for its ideas, with the aim of raising awareness of them and trying to get as much of the electorate as possible to share them. This is how political parties have always done things. What's new is that the PES is doing this at European level, which is a valid reason for us to talk about it.
The President of the PES, Mr Rasmussen, gave the job of drafting a programme to a group of fifteen or so party members, led by Pascal Lamy. Last week, Mr Lamy presented the "priorities of the Socialist family" to the Socialist group of the Committee of the Regions, and, quite logically, told them of the progress made by his group, adding that the text was still under discussion and that several controversial points would be submitted to the Madrid Summit. He outlined the nature and ambitions of the document, and some of the general guidelines of its content. This is what I took away with me:
Enough of the grand declarations. The goal is to move away from grand declarations to an operational programme, similar to those of a national government coalition. This is new ground for the PES, which is more used to formal declarations. By taking action in the Commission, the Council and the Parliament at the same time, the Socialist forces want to spark debates in the three Institutions and steer them towards positive policies. Mr Lamy said that a large proportion of those who vote Socialist "have a problem with Europe". Enthusiasm shattered or diminished, disenchantment, the feeling of distance from the Institutions, the impression of excessive bureaucracy in the EU trying to deliberate on the subjects which interest the citizens: employment, growth, citizens' security, environment, health, Europe's weight on the international scene. A Socialist agenda has to be switched on to the concerns of the people.
Making Lisbon happen. These concerns also apply to other political movements; but there are also problems which are exclusive to the Left or the Centre-Left. Solidarity starts to fray at the edges, leaving market opening as the number one priority for market opening. Mr Lamy believes that this is a good thing, and that its potential has not yet been fully exploited; but it should not be an isolated objective. A Socialist programme should both improve market dynamics and help hone solidarity and cooperation. The Lisbon Strategy, the chosen instrument to achieve this, must become more and more of a reality, more operational. Mr Lamy spoke of a "gigantic" distance between the enormous capacity of European circles to "talk about" this strategy, and the much smaller one of making it happen. In order to keep its triple nature (economic, social and environmental), the strategy must become a programme, based on:
a) the open method of co-ordination, including European programmes to be carried out by the Member States taking part, with discipline and a timetable. The broad outlines of the exchange rate policy (or the aspects of it that come under the Council's jurisdiction) should be included here;
b) European solidarity and cooperation policies covering cohesion (regional policy should be a real policy, not just some kind of "clearing house" between those who pay in and those who take out), services of general interest (SGIs: the liberalisation featuring in the Constitution should serve towards a framework directive), research (this must become more "European" in order to avoid waste and duplication of effort). Indirect taxation should feature in this "European" package", but differences of opinion exist among the Socialists. In the view of Mr Lamy, for company taxation we should move towards an alignment of rates rather that towards identical rates.
c) Social and environmental agendas, with specific proposals. Given the inescapable ageing of the population of the EU, the group is moving towards immigration quotas; but Mr Lamy acknowledged that there is no unanimity on the subject. In his view, an immigration policy is vital because of ageing, to maintain solidarity between the generations and the European model of society; but not everyone shares his opinion. We will see what the Socialist Summit decides. (F.R.)