From: | "Bruce Eggum" <bruce.eggum(at)gmail.com> |
---|---|
Date: | Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:09:38 -0500 |
Subject: | Parties and Politics |
EUOBSERVER
I thank Vladimir Rott for forwarding this information. As I read this, I see the value "parties" have in democracy. We want to "network" our interests, but isn't a "party" a network of people with similar views? If we disagree with some of our "Parties" (network) views, we must bring strong documentation and proof supporting our views I suggest if we want DD, we may need to from a DD party or introduce DD to our party to carry that view into government.
Please comment on this, it could help us "network" our DD
goals. Bruce
24.10.2006 - 09:33 CET | By Steen
Gade, Sofie Carsten Nielsen and Søren Winther Lundby
EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Today we are joining a new party. We
are already members of the Danish centre-left parties SF, the Social Liberals
and the Social Democrats respectively. We have no plans to change that. The
world has changed, however, and so has the EU. We can no longer make do with
being members of a national party. It is for this reason that on 12 October we
sent in our applications, together with a membership subscription of €20, to
the three parties in the European Parliament where our Danish parties sit.
There is only one problem. The parties do not yet exist. Or to be more precise,
they exist in the European Parliament as political groupings but lack some of
the characteristics needed to be proper parties. Most important of all, they
lack members!
'European parties' today consist of parliamentarians in the European Parliament
and work with national parties. This is good, but nowhere near good enough in
light of the enormous challenges which face us in the 20th century.
For decades, the heads of state and government in the European Council
constituted an essential driving force for the development of binding
co-operation in the EU. This will not necessarily be the case in the future. It
is by no means certain that the European Council will be in a position to
secure future co-operation so that the EU becomes an even better tool for
handling challenges that cannot be met at national level.
The continuous expansion of the EU has complicated the political game in the
European Council, which after new year will see 27 heads of state and
government sitting around the table.
European parliament overlooked
One overlooked point in the debate on Europe's
future is that things are quite different at the European Parliament.
Here, MEPs are grouped according to their views. The number of players in the
European Parliament has therefore largely remained unchanged. There are still
four to six parties which form the fulcrum of the decisions that are made. And
there is no reason to assume that the picture will change as the EU expands
still further. Even when Turkey
joins the EU, we will continue to see political competition, which primarily
exists between the right and the left - precisely as we know it, for better or
worse, from domestic politics.
From this point of view, it makes good sense that the European Parliament has
been gaining ever more influence. In New Europe we have always been supporters
of this development towards a sort of two-chamber system, although there is
still a long way to go.
All the same, an increasing number of EU laws come into existence on the basis
of a double passage at the European Parliament ('the citizens' chamber') and
the Council ('the governments' chamber'). It is possible that we will move
towards a more genuine balance between these two institutions. This makes it
all the more important to ensure full exploitation of the democratic potential
the European Parliament provides. This is where European political parties come
into the picture.
More influence
If the European Parliament is important, then it is also important that the
parties represented in the Parliament have their base among the citizens of Europe. We need to have proper European parties if we as
citizens are to have better opportunities to exercise influence on the EU. It
is important to remember that all nationalities are minorities on the European
and global political stages. Even if all 5.4 million Danes found a common
cause, we would still be in a weak position in Europe.
In other words, there is no way of getting round this problem. If we are to
have a chance of getting issues in which we stongly believe through the system,
we must seek those of similar views across member states. It is here the
potential lies.
In Europe there are millions of people who
would rally to many of the causes which we as centre-left players regard as
essential. We must also divide ourselves into groups according to our views at
the European level, too. Just as we have done for decades in domestic politics.
Thus, European political parties must be pivotal in drafting coherent political
programmes which form the basis of day-to-day political work as well as the
election campaign the parties must contest in every five years when the EU's citizens
elect a new European Parliament.
It goes without saying that the political programmes must pack a punch. Ahead
of the 2009 election it would be a good idea for the parties each to select
five key issues. Green, liberal or social democrat voters in Trollhättan will
thus be able to give priority to the same five points as green, liberal or
social democrat voters respectively in Thy, TerezĂn, Turin and Toulouse.
Shaping the programme and the issues
The European parties must at the same time also choose a front figure who is
able to communicate the party's policy and be its face to the outside world. It
was considerations of this kind that led to New Europe writing to the
Parliament's parties prior to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and asking:
Who is your candidate? Because of course it is on the cards, as well as between
the lines in the stranded European Constitution's article 20 and 27: the
parties must prior to elections to the European Parliament announce their
candidate for the post of president of the European Commission.
We want to be able to influence the programme our respective European party, as
well as influence the choice of five issues that are to constitute the crux of
the election campaign.
We want, for example by means of a European ballot, to be able to influence
those who want to lead our parties and thus be candidates for the post of
president of the European Commission. The world and the EU have changed over
the last 50 years, but the way forward is still the same. It is all about more
democracy and about developing a common public sphere across national
boundaries.
The authors are members of 'New Europe' a
centre-left organisation that aims gather all forces to prepare concrete
proposals for political action in the EU.
http://euobserver.com/9/22704/?rk=1
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