Over the last number of days I seem to be having discussions about the European Union a lot on twitter. One of the topics that keep coming up is the fact that the Party of European Socialist (PES) do not have an agreed candidate for the position of President of the European Commission. In fact three PES Prime Ministers, José Sócrates of Portugal, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain and Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom have come out and backed Jose Manuel Barroso for the position of Commission President when he is the candidate of the European People’s Party!
This week the European Part of the campaign did take off with two open letters being sent. It was of course started by the PES with their open letter attacking the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party, who responded with their own open letter today.
If the European Campaign is going to be fought by Open Letters, it is going to be quite boring and in all honesty are people surprised that there is no “European Campaign” in the Elections and national campaigns dominate, this is one of the symptoms. The only people who read these open letters are the likes of Andreas, Jon Worth, Julien Frisch, me and others who have an unhealthy obsession with the EU are the only ones that read it? I very much doubt that this will receive much attention in the national media of many member states.
Next up is the PES manifesto (PDF File) itself, firstly fair play to them having it out since that start of the year, unlike the EPP who decide on theirs in two weeks. But why is it so damn long? The PES Manifesto is 60 pages long and contains over 70 points, is this memorable? is it easy to sell? has it gotten much attention? Answer to all of that? No
Compare it to the manifesto of the ELDR (PDF File), its six panels and it has 15 points. It short, concise, to the point, and more importantly achievable.
When I mentioned on twitter that some of the PES aims in the manifesto were beyond the competence of the European Parliament I was told by one activist
Because our values should not to be divided into “competence levels”. Also many EU decisions have had big impact!
Ignoring the second part which is a given, what is the point in campaigning on something you have no power to change.
Here is one example. Point number 16 in the PES Manifesto:
We propose a European pact on wages, guaranteeing equal pay
for equal work and setting out the need for decent minimum
wages in all EU Member States, agreed either by law or through
collective bargaining and applying both to citizens and migrant
workers. Social rights include the right to a fair level playing field for workers.
Now I didn’t know that voting for the PES will lead to Europe wide pacts. In fact it is something that comes up, again and again in the document. Pacts can only be decided between member states. The European Parliament can try to influence these pacts, but they cannot initiate them.
So why are the PES suggesting all these? To be quite honest I don’t know. To me there is no point in campaigning on these issues. It makes no sense, and thats why the PES will lose, they have aimed to high, and they have no candidate to unify themselves.
If the PES end up the largest party in the European Parliament, I will eat my hat in Rottardam, and you can hold me to that one.
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I like this one: “[T]hats why the PES will lose, they have aimed to high, and they have no candidate to unify themselves.”
I think that is a pretty good description, although it is a pity that the party that took this exercise most seriously very early might lose because they were just able to raise expectations without fulfilling them while those that aimed low will easily reach their goals.
Your probably right Julien, but is not that always the way in politics?
[...] yea, I was hoping that a certain Think post of mine would get activists of the PES (Socialists) riled up and start arguing, but it didn’t. So my [...]
Possibly the reason why PES people have not got “riled up” by your post, Stephen, is becasue it contains little that is new or substantial - a bit like the EPP manifesto.
Your prescription appears to be: “Don’t aim high. Don’t aspire. Don’t offer anything other the bare minimum”. It is that conservative outlook that has left both the EU and our own country rudderless in the face of the meltdown in the global economy.
The PES manifesto focuses on six key themes for these elections and provides sufficient supporting information to demonstrate that what we propose is deliverable. Our six themes relate to the economy, a social Europe, gender equality, combatting climate change, migration and peace and development in the world. These are the issues that directly concern European citizens. They are ambitious proposals because the global challenges that confront Europeans are enormous.
The conservative response is to keep the head down and hope that all these problems will somehow go away of their own accord. A threadbare and thin EPP manifesto relfects this failure of leadership and ambition. It accords with the poor leadership that conservative administrations in Ireland and in the EU have demonstrated these past few years.
Desmond O’Toole
PES activists Dublin
Party of European Socialists
Well Desmond, Lets get one thing right. The EPP manifesto hasnt been decided yet so how do you know whats in it? I was comparing it to the ELDR manifesto
I never said that about “not aiming high” there is a difference between aiming for something acheivable and aiming for something that is acheivable.
Im pointing the faults of the PES, no candidate, and infact some PM’s backing the EPP candidate which all feeds into making this one of the most boring elections campaigns. I want excitement, i want debate. I want people being passionate!
Is that too much to ask for in the European Elections?
Thanks for your response, Stephen.
Draft copies of the EPP manifesto have been circulating on the internet since January and it’s likely final content has been well flagged for some time. I’m sure you are aware of all of this already.
On the issue of the non-contest for the post of EC president, I’m also disappointed that member state horse-trading may frustrate the opportunity for a more open contest for this important post.
However, the PES has called for the selection of a new EC president to be held over to the Autumn to allow the European Parliament to declare its preferred candidate for the position. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said at the end of last month:
“I speak on behalf of the PES, not national governments. One thing is sure: the PES will not back Mr Barroso. He is the candidate of the European People’s Party. He will never represent the opinions of the Socialist family, even if some social-democratic governments back him, for national reasons. But the parliament has to have the last word after the elections.”
That’s the positon that PES activists in Dublin (and across the EU) are pitching for.
Hi Stephane,
I could write an essay of counter arguments to your post. Unfortunately I do not have the time.
So I will be short. I strongly agree with what Desmond said. However the PES is also able to make our point clear in a shorter form: http://pes.org/downloads/Manifesto_Flyer_EN.pdf
And now something you will not believe, the PES manifesto in 250 words: http://pes.org/downloads/manifesto_summary_250_words_EN.pdf
There are many other things to say but you might have got the point…
Hi,
I could write an essay of counter arguments to your post. Unfortunately I do not have the time.
So I will be short. I strongly agree with what Desmond said. However the PES is also able to make our point clear in a shorter form: http://pes.org/downloads/Manifesto_Flyer_EN.pdf
And now something you will not believe, the PES manifesto in 250 words: http://pes.org/downloads/manifesto_summary_250_words_EN.pdf
There are many other things to say but you might have got the point…
PS: The draft of the EPP manifesto is publicly available and from your experience: Has a publicly available draft ever been changed much?
First, let me just say I have been following your posts quite often lately. I wanted to ask whether it is true that the EU just agreed to have all websites ask for the agreement of the visitor when a cookie is being passed through the browser. I think that would be very difficult to manage for us, the not-native internet users…. Do you know anything about this? Supposedly this would turn all websites more complicated, including blogs? What are cookies and why are they dangerous? Are cookies from your blog safe?
Thank you and very interested in your reply,
Mary,
Mary,
Short answer is I don’t know. But i remember hearing about it and I don’t think it was passed.
Stephen
[...] was giving out during the election campaign that the PES didnt have a candidate for Commission President. Despite the fact the PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen wants the job, its looking highly unlikely [...]