Brussels, 16/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Saturday 14 January, European reformist left intellectuals and politicians submitted to the President of the Party of European Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, their ideas on re-launching citizens' Europe (see EUROPE 9108). Bruno Liebhaberg, President of Gauche Reformiste Europeenne, says a welfare state Europe has to be constructed for the twenty-first century that protects and stimulates to get a democratic Europe to emerge, encouraging all initiatives to launch a European project together with citizens. This is the message sent out by the European reformist left. The message aims to be a starting point in collective reflection and an important opportunity for contributing to formulate common values and stimulate the government of EU states and a Europe that is effective in terms of managing its future, said Minister-President of the Brussels Region Charles Pique. Anna Diamantopoulou, Greek MP and former European Commissioner for Social Affairs, said the initiative was a spark for a new direction for Europe and for the European dream. She said democracy, social protection and the economy are the three key areas of the text, which should be concentrated upon, along with new tools and new policies to provide content for the enlarged Europe. Bruno Liebhaberg started off by noting that the initiative recognised that it is not possible to accept the European project seizing up following the French and Dutch No votes, and starting to unravel. Neither can one work with the institutional plumbing by adding bits of sticking plaster here and there to get ideas accepted. Instead, it is necessary to start from reality, in other words from citizens' expectations.
Welcoming the initiative as bringing together people who want a different type of politics (describing this as the best starting point for 2006), Poul Nyrup Rasmussen put forward a timetable: 1) 6 February: Rasmussen will submit this report to the Bureau of the Party of European Socialists; 2) 14 February: he will brief a coordinating meeting of socialist and social democrat parties on the documents, which will be submitted to the ECOFIN Council by Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. The March Summit (European Council) will focus on employment, looking at reports on national reform programmes under the revised Lisbon Strategy. Former Danish prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said the reformist left would fight to ensure its conclusions were incorporated in the Summit's conclusions. On the second programme of the European reformist left, the new social Europe, Rasmussen said social Europe should be made up of a mixture of competitiveness, new social protection and innovation. We need new partners, said Rasmussen, adding that he was not scared of India and China. He stressed the importance for Europe of combining better competitiveness, mobility, security and a new form of social security. He said the key task for the European reformist left was to help people live with change. We have to work at local, regional, national and European levels, said Rasmussen, with this new roadmap and if we succeed by the end of the year, we will restore citizens' confidence in Europe.
The document was submitted by five of the six European reformist left partners, explained Bruno Liebhaberg, because the UK think-tank Policy Network (close to Tony Blair) was unable to ratify the text in the end because it didn't think British public opinion was ready to approve such a big leap in the European political project, explained former Italian prime minister and Co-President of ItalianiEuropei, Massimo d'Alema MEP to reporters. At the conference, Policy Network representatives had a problematic approach, said Liebhaberg, but hoped the British would soon be back on board with the rest of them.
Chairing the first roundtable, on economic growth and pro-growth powers for the EU, Anna Diamantopoulou highlighted the following ideas: 1) under the new Lisbon Strategy instruments, establishing a pro-growth Council of Ministers deciding by qualified majority voting; a future policy for spending on research, education and transport; 2) regarding macroeconomic issues, institutionalising Eurogroup, whose chair could be an EU finance minister, a figurehead in the style of Solana, suggested Diamantopoulou. Joaquin Almunia made a few suggestions for countering the risk of Europe falling apart, like improving the coordination of monetary policy under EMU. He said the ECOFIN Council 'doesn't work very well' and strengthening political coordination of the European economy was a question of political will.
Maria Joao Rodrigues, Special Advisor to the European Commission for the Lisbon Strategy (known as Mrs Lisbon, said Anna Diamantopoulou), said she agreed with the messages set out in the document but they would not be enough. The economy is a global economy and a more ambitious action plan is needed for the global stage, she argued, combining innovation, research and environmental policies. She said this was vital for the future of Europe because the Lisbon Strategy has to be established within a new phase of governance. Profound changes are required, with the challenge being to strengthen links between governments, parliaments and organised civil society at national and European level, said Rodrigues. She said dialogue is currently restricted to an elite, and citizens had to be brought on board. On national reform programmes under the revised Lisbon Strategy, Rodrigues discussed her tour of European capitals, describing her meetings as very 'rich'. She told EUROPE that some countries seemed to see it as an administrative exercise, while others have launched a coordination initiative between governments, parliaments and organised civil society. Rodrigues said to get public opinion on board, other resources would be required. She said the European Commission's communications action plan to be submitted to the March Summit would get the ball rolling.
During the second roundtable, on building a sustainable welfare Europe for the twenty-first century, 'making protective and empowering Europe emerge', the chair, Massimo d'Alema said people had to have the courage to change direction in order to breathe new life into Europe. Kinga Goncz, Hungarian social affairs minister, said social inclusion could add to growth if the number of people contributing to growth increases. Former French defence minister Alain Richard hoped EU Member States would draw up voluntary sharing and exchange programmes among police forces and for an annual conference to be held among NGOs and European security institutions to look at crisis management. Livia Turco, former Italian welfare minister, said it was importance to have social security safety nets to protect Europeans from globalisation.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, chairing the third roundtable ('Making democratic Europe come through'), said common European values exist that allow the creation of democratic structures. He said institutional issues do not come up for discussion very often in the European Union and for this reason, a different tack should be taken, step by step. He suggested organising a conference in Paris before July similar to the 14 January conference in Brussels to finalise the document on re-launching citizens' Europe. Strauss-Kahn summed up by criticising the deathly silence of the European Commission and its failure to provide ideas on how to make progress.