Ecosy Congress 09 R&D 2009

ECOSY – Young European Socialists
Resolutions and Declarations - Drafts

Submitted by member organizations within the deadline – 1/03/09
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15 CHANGE FOR EUROPE

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18 Drafts Resolutions and Declarations
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Change for Europe - Odnowa dla Europy - Bewegung für Europa - Omslalag voor Europa – Changeons
l’Europe - Změna pro Evropu - Αλλάζουµε την Ευρώπη – Változást Európának - O zmene pre Európu -
Förändring för Europa – Cambio para Europa - Mudança para a Europa - Permainos Europai –
Spremenimo Evropo - Cambiamo l`Europa - O schimbare pentru Europa - Muudame Euroopat –
Forandringer for Europa – PĀRMAIŅAS EIROPA - Muutosta Eurooppaan - Промяна за Европа - Bidla
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R1 Combat the economic crisis and JUSOS 3
regulate the financial system
R2 New Agreement on social and JUSOS 6

employment policy for Europe
R3 Equal Pay for Equal Work JUSOS 9

R4 2010 – Bologna is over? VSStÖ 11
R5 Young Generation – Future of European MSD Czech Republic 13
Science and research
R6 European Energy Policy – for MSD Czech Republic 15
sustainability JS in PvdA
R7 On post-Kyoto climate change MSD Czech Republic 20
architecture
R8 For Funding for development MSD Czech Republic 22
Irish Labour Youth
R9 On the recent developments in Cyprus EDEK Youth 24
R10 Western Balkans enlargement for MSD Czech Republic 26
people of the region
R11 EU Policy towards Eastern Neighbours MSD Czech Republic 28
and Russia
R12 China SJÖ 30
MSD Czech Republic
R13 Resolution Women & Health SJÖ 32
JS in PvdA
Mladi Forum
R14 For a strong Beijing+15 in the spirit of SJÖ 36
the Millennium Development Goals JS in PvdA
R15 Resolution on Migration and Asylum ANIMO 38
Policies
R16 Make the year of Intercultural Dialogue ANIMO 40
Last! JS in PvdA
MJS Belgium
R17 ECOSY Pool of Trainers 2009 – 2011 – VSStÖ 42
The Strategy
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Combat the economic crisis and regulate the financial system
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27 By: JUSOS
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29 In the summer of 2007, the world has been hit by one of the biggest financial crisis
30 in history. In the following months this financial crisis has turned into an economic
31 crisis affecting the entire world. But not everyone is equally affected by this crisis.
32 This counts especially for Europe. Not every country in Europe has been hit as hard
33 as Ireland, Great Britain or Latvia.
34 The crisis began with a breakdown of the real estate market in the US. Low interest
35 rates and lacking regulation in the US made it very easy for many people to buy
36 houses and other real estates. Lower income households were literally pushed into
37 debt. As collaterals for these mortgages, everlasting increasing real estate prices
38 were expected and incorporated in the calculations. An enormous bubble was created
39 which attracted capital from all over the world. All these investors wanted to have a
40 big share of the big expected profits. Large savings from emerging countries such as
41 China, who invested abroad instead of developing their internal market, were
42 attracted. The free international financial markets and the lacking regulation made
43 these bubble grow faster and faster. Since the basis for this was the expectation of
44 everlasting increasing real estate prices in the US, the big crash was only a matter of
45 time.
46 Many banks worldwide were directly involved in these highly speculative investments
47 which led to a total crash of the global banking systems. Thus, the financial systems
48 could not fulfill its original purpose anymore: financing the investments of the real
49 economy companies. This triggered an economic crisis. Small economies like Iceland
50 or Latvia totally broke down and bigger economies are suffering from a deep
51 recession now. Many countries had to take over several banks or help them with big
52 bail outs to ensure the financial stability of the country. These bail outs and
53 takeovers have to be paid by the public which is us. In other words banks have
54 privatized big profits over many years and now the losses are being socialized.
55 One of the reasons why this crisis happened is the deregulation of global financial
56 markets that allowed high risky financial market products like hedge funds and
57 private equity funds. This non-regulation made it easy to speculate in a large scale.
58 Another reason for the crisis is the unequal distribution of wealth. The gap between
59 rich and poor has spread in the last years. Those who own already a large amount of
60 money worldwide are only a few people but those got even richer the last years.
61 They have a lot of free capital which they don’t need to cover their basic needs. This
62 allows these few people to undertake enormous risks in their investments which led
63 to the high level of speculation in the markets.
64 Another problem is wrong incentives for the bank management. CEOs of the banks
65 have stock options or their bonus is based on the profit made in one year. This leads
66 to an extreme short term orientation of the company and is thus not very
67 sustainable.
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68 The lack of transparency in financial markets is a further aggravating factor: with

69 banks putting a lot of their high risk transactions off-balance sheet, the risks to the
70 entire system were difficult to monitor. 18 months into the crisis, full disclosure of
71 the bank’s exposure to the crisis has still not been reached, which makes public
72 intervention difficult. How are you supposed to cure a pandemic, if the level of
73 contagion isn’t clear?
74 The crisis has also highlighted the urgent need for high levels of consumer
75 protection. Modest households shouldn’t have been allowed to take up credits that
76 they obviously couldn’t pay back and that were moreover linked to obscure
77 conditions as regards rate increases.
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79 Rating agencies bear a huge responsibility in the current crisis, as they have
80 participated in and even contributed to the race for financial innovation and
81 distribution of risk. They have been very generous in distributing triple A ratings to
82 complex products that they had been elaborating beforehand in their advisory
83 capacity. This massive conflict of interest has to be ended. The quasi monopoly of
84 the three US rating agencies has to be broken.
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86 But rating agencies cannot be blamed for the blind faith that professional investors
87 have put in their ratings, thereby neglecting their job of looking into what kind of
88 products they invest and they tell their clients to invest in.
89 What should be the consequences?

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91 We as ECOSY – Young European Socialist call for a more sustainable banking system
92 and more sustainable financial markets. We therefore urge the EU member states,
93 the EU Commission and the European Parliament to take action in the following
94 fields:
95 • Conditionality for bank bail outs is necessary. In order to stabilize the financial
96 market bank bail outs and even nationalization of banks is necessary. But this
97 public money cannot be granted without any conditionality. Therefore the rescue
98 plan of a bank has to be coordinated with the public body granting the bail out
99 money. The same public body should also have control over restructuring the
100 bank. Limits for the remunerations of the bank management have to be set. A full
101 disclosure of all risks and no off balance sheet trade should be possible anymore.
102 • Complex financial market products have to be restricted. For that
103 authorization and better supervision of financial products is necessary.
104 • Independent rating agencies are needed. For that we propose a European
105 public rating agency. Private rating agencies should not be allowed to consult the
106 banks and companies which they rate.
107 • The bonus system of the bank management has to become long term
108 oriented. Currently banks pay their management a bonus on an annual basis.
109 That means that only the profit in one year determines the bonus. This does not
110 create an incentive for the bank management to take decisions which increases
111 the long term value of a bank. Therefore the bonus should have a limit and
112 should take the annual result of at least the last four years as a basis determining
113 the bonus.
114 • Stock options for the bank management have to be prohibited.
115 • Better consumer protection is needed. Therefore banks and other financial
116 institutions have to inform their costumers better about risks and repayment
117 conditions.
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118 • Pension funds should not be allowed to invest in high risk financial products.
119 • Financial education has to become more important in our education systems.
120 Young people have to be better educated about the risks of consumer credits and
121 credit cards. This has to be accompanied by a raising awareness campaign on the
122 risks of consumer credits.
123 • Tax havens and financial offshore centers should be closed down. Tax havens
124 and offshore centers are not independent like often told. The countries should
125 start to use political pressure to close them.
126 • We need a broader mandate for the European Central Bank. The ECB should
127 not only be committed to the objective of price stability. Therefore the ECB
128 should also be committed to the objectives of sustainable growth and full
129 employment. Furthermore we need to bring the European Central Bank in a
130 position to organize solvency in future crisis situations. One option would be the
131 implementation of a right to bail in, what means that the European central bank
132 has the right to force financial institution still in a good state to continue to issue
133 credits.
134 • We call for the introduction of a Tobin Tax and a stamp duty reserve tax.
135 These taxes are important to reduce the profit of short-time investments and
136 thus reduce the speculation in the market. With the tax revenue development
137 projects can be funded.
138 In the current economic crisis we also need political action on the European level. We
139 as ECOSY – Young European Socialist call for:
140 • Coordinated economic stabilization programs. The current programs are not
141 coordinated on the European level. Therefore we need better macroeconomic
142 governance on the European level.
143 • More public investment in green technology and green jobs are necessary.
144 • Infrastructure on local level has to be improved. These investments help to
145 secure jobs in the construction business.
146 • Cuts in the social budget are counterproductive and thus we strongly oppose
147 this policy. The social budgets help to secure income for the poor and help to
148 maintain the level of domestic consumption.
149 • Safeguard of housing. Therefore a moratorium on mortgages is necessary.
150 • More fiscal policy flexibility. The current Growth and Stability Pact does not
151 allow an anti-cyclical fiscal policy. We therefore urge the EU member states to
152 untighten the strict budget rules of the Growth and Stability Pact.
153 • Harmonization of the corporate tax base in Europe. In addition a minimum
154 corporate tax rate in Europe has to be established. The revenue should be used
155 to fund the European Union.
156 • A minimum wage and income. This can either be ensured by law or by the
157 social partners through collective agreements.
158 • Expand and reform the EU budget. For the tasks of the European Union better
159 funding is necessary. Therefore the EU budget has to be reformed and expanded.
160 • The EU should be allowed to emit Eurobonds. This allows the EU a deficit
161 spending.
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New Agreement on social and employment policy for Europe
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164 By: JUSOS
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167 In the year 2000 the EU member states agreed upon a policy agenda better known
168 as Lisbon Strategy which was supposed to make the European Union “the most
169 dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world…by 2010”. This
170 goal itself has never been shared by ECOSY – Young European Socialist as we are an
171 organization based on the idea of international solidarity. On the other hand the idea
172 of a social and employment policy agenda for Europe has always been shared and
173 strongly promoted by ECOSY.
174 The concept of the Lisbon strategy foresaw three elements: Innovation as the motor
175 for economic growth, the knowledge-based society, social and environmental
176 renewal of the European Union. The Lisbon strategy is closely linked with the idea of
177 sustainable growth - balancing the triangle of social, environmental and economic
178 development. For this investments in research and development as well as in
179 education have to be increased.
180 On the social agenda more childcare is needed to increase the employment share of
181 women in society and an employment strategy is needed to bring everyone in Europe
182 into work. Since the EU’s competencies are rather narrow in the field of employment
183 and social policy, these goals were to be achieved via a coordination of member
184 states’ national policies assisted by the European Commission monitoring the
185 progress made on jointly agreed indicators (the so-called Open Method of
186 Coordination).
187 As all these goals will not be reached by 2010 the Lisbon Strategy has failed. For
188 ECOSY – Young European Socialist it is clear that not the policies itself were wrong
189 but the implementation of the right policy measures in the member states was
190 lacking. We therefore urge the EU Commission, the European Parliament and
191 especially the member states to find a new agreement on social and employment
192 policies.
193 What has happened so far?
194 The mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy in 2005 has already revealed that
195 member states have not undertaken enough efforts in order to achieve the
196 objectives of the Lisbon agenda. The conclusion of the review was that the strategy
197 should be focussed on jobs and growth, thereby neglecting the social and
198 environmental policy goals, and that more action has to be undertaken during the
199 second half of the decade.
200 To improve and accelerate the Lisbon Process the so called three-year-policy-cycles
201 have been introduced. For a time period of three years all EU member states had to
202 agree on Integrated Policy Guidelines IPGs which have a binding character (although
203 not legally) for all EU member states. After each three year term all member states
204 go through an assessment process in which the success according to the guidelines is
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205 assessed. For the first three-year-cycle the member states have agreed upon 24
206 IPGs (including 16 macroeconomic guidelines and 8 employment guidelines).
207 The EU Commission assessed the progress on the policy guidelines in 2008 and
208 found out that still the effort has not been enough. Although the European
209 Parliament and the PES urged the Commission and the member states to define new
210 concrete and binding Integrated Policy Guidelines the guidelines remained
211 unchanged. Without profound changes the strategy is doomed to fail.
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213 Why has Lisbon failed?
214 Besides being too weak in implementation, the Lisbon Strategy’s overall policy
215 agenda is substantially flawed with regard to the necessities for a dynamic economy
216 with sustainable growth, full employment and a high degree of social cohesion:
217 - Lisbon has failed to make Europe’s economy more dynamic. Instead of
218 promoting sustainable growth, Lisbon has contributed to a slowdown in
219 productivity increase since high interest rates hamper investment and labour
220 market flexibilisation favours wage dumping.
221 - Macroeconomic policies remain uncoordinated. With monetary policy

222 centralized and fiscal options restrained, members states enter into a harmful
223 competition for lower taxes and wages depressing purchasing power and
224 government spending.
225 - EU’s economic and employment policies are limited to supply-side measures,
226 neglecting the overall importance of domestic demand for a productive, high-
227 road economy.
228 - Lisbon Strategy has not proven successful in its social objectives. As social
229 cohesion has been subordinated to the overall goal of competitiveness the
230 eradication of poverty and exclusion has not been prioritized.
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232 What has to be done?
233 We as ECOSY – Young European Socialist still believe strongly in a social and
234 employment policy agenda for the European Union. After the global financial and
235 economic crisis this is more urgent than ever. More and better jobs have to be
236 created and thus we need a new agreement among the member states on a social
237 and employment policy agenda as a Post Lisbon strategy.
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239 We as ECOSY – Young European Socialists believe that the Open Method of
240 Coordination has failed, especially in the context of the Lisbon strategy. The social
241 and employment policy has to become more binding for the member states. This
242 means that if the agreed goals are not achieved contract penalties have to be
243 imposed.
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245 We as ECOSY – Young European Socialists call for a new social and employment
246 agreement among the member states of the EU for the next decade. The agreement
247 has to have clearly defined and binding objectives in the following fields.
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249 - More and better jobs for all! Making high-quality, productive full employment
250 a central priority.
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252 - A share of at least 5 per cent of the EU’s GDP has to be contributed to R&D
253 and education. These additional financial resources have to be used for more
254 support for new skills, lifelong learning, and a modern education and training
255 system which is granted for free.
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257 - The share of women in the labor market has to increase. Our goal is a gender
258 balanced labor market by 2020. By that time the share of men and women in
259 the labor market should be the same and the pay gap has to be eradicated.
260 For this a parental leave system is necessary, which allows parents better
261 reentering of the labor market. This has to be accompanied by more
262 investments in childcare.
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264 - Since youth unemployment is a major challenge for Europe today a youth
265 guarantee (job offer or training activity) has to be implemented in every
266 member state. The European Youth Pact is a good starting point for this policy
267 but the instruments have to be improved.
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269 - For a better macro-economic stability a new macro-economic dialogue and
270 coordination is necessary. This includes a reform of the financial system, a
271 broader mandate for the European Central Bank including a stronger focus of
272 the monetary policy on sustainable growth and employment. Additionally the
273 fiscal policies have to be better coordinated among the member states with
274 more fiscal flexibility than the current Growth and Stability Pact allows.
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275
Equal Pay for Equal Work
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277 By: JUSOS
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281 Temporary agency work has dramatically increased in the recent years in Europe. In
282 almost all member states of the European Union the amount of workers employed in
283 temporary agencies has gone up. Only in Denmark the amount of workers employed
284 in this sector has decreased in the time period 2004 – 2007. In Germany and France
285 600,000 people are employed in temporary agencies. This number is even higher
286 since part time jobs are not counted. In the UK the 1.2 million workers are employed
287 as temporary agencies workers. In Poland the amount of workers employed in this
288 sector has gone up by 90 per cent, in Greece it has gone up by 133 per cent from
289 2004 until 2007.
290 Those who work in these sectors are mostly young people. They are especially
291 affected by the world financial crisis and the first to be fired. Nonetheless, for them it
292 is mostly the only way of finding a job. But what is the price and why has this
293 temporary work increased so much?
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295 This dramatic change is closely linked to a policy of more and more labor market
296 flexibility in the member states. For the workers concerned temporary work often
297 results in worse working conditions than their counterparts in regular jobs have.
298 They are often denied equal payment, social security and employee participation.
299 Moreover, these developments increase pressure on the established rights of workers
300 in general.
301 In all member states temporary agency work is regulated. But the regulation differs
302 from country to country. This especially the case when it comes to payment. Only
303 eight member countries there is an equal payment regulation. This regulation says
304 clearly that a temporary agency worker has to earn as much as fixed employee in a
305 company. In the rest of the EU such an equal payment regulation is either missing as
306 in Ireland, Latvia or Lithuania or there are a lot of exemptions to this. This makes
307 temporary agency work very attractive for many companies. Mainly in the industrial
308 sector but also in the service sector temporary agency work has become quite
309 popular.
310 Therefore we as ECOSY – Young European Socialist call for
311 ‐ A European equal pay for equal work regulation. Temporary agency
312 workers have to be treated equally as their colleagues especially in terms of
313 working conditions and payment. No exemptions should be allowed.
314 ‐ We urge the member states to adopt the EU directive on temporary
315 agency work.
316 ‐ The EU regulation should set a minimum time limit for an employee to
317 work for one company (e.g. 6 months).
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318 ‐ A maximum share of 20 per cent or less of temporary agency workers

319 in one company has to be implemented. Exemptions for small enterprises are
320 possible.
321 ‐ A minimum wage which prohibits extremely low incomes. This
322 minimum wage can either be introduced by law or ensured through collective
323 bargaining.
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2010 – Bologna is over?
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326 By: VSStÖ
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329 ECOSY - Young European Socialists welcomed the Bologna process. It is necessary to
330 ensure student mobility, promote better inter-cultural understanding and
331 multilingualism, and improve the personal development of European students.
332 ECOSY strives for a real European education area, based on the principle of free and
333 equal access for all. (ECOSY Position Paper, Warsaw 2007)
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335 Whoever has been active in the field of Higher Education during the last decade could
336 not avoid getting in contact with the term Bologna-Process. In 1999 this process
337 officially began with the signing of this declaration by 29 ministers of education from
338 different countries all over Europe. By 2010 the aim of building up an common
339 European Education Area should be reached. Today in 2009 we are all aware of the
340 fact that this project did not work out the way it was initially planned. Throughout
341 the years the signing states faced different problems trying to implement this system
342 in their countries.
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344 The cornerstones of this concept were the accomplishment of common recognised
345 and comparable degrees, a three-staged study system and the implementation of a
346 common credit system.
347 This way the mobility of students should become more popular and easy to achieve
348 for anyone regardless of the background of the individual.
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351 Together with sister organisations such as ESU – European Students Union (former
352 ESIB) ECOSY – Young European Socialists has been expressing multiple criticisms
353 since 1999. This process did not work out the way it should have according to the
354 theory. With strong doubts we amended areas which went in a strange and
355 dangerous way according to the position of ECOSY, fighting for free education for
356 everyone.
357 Now we have to see that different issues like the strong connection with the Lisbon
358 Strategy gave this process a dimension which was not the initial aim.
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360 In 2010 the deadline of implementation will be over. ECOSY should not stop working
361 on the field of the Bologna Process. The next years will be as important as the past
362 ones have been. These years will be trend setting for the European Education Area.
363 ECOSY will not miss the chance in the next years to continue expressing the remarks
364 we have about the evaluation of this process. Especially in the framework of the
365 ECOSY's Student's Network we will try to contribute in a critical but constructive way
366 together with sister organisations to clarify several points within the process of
367 evaluation.
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370 • In the Evaluation of Bologna the newly implemented three-

371 staged study structure has to be taken in a critical review when it comes to
372 the question of increasing the mobility of young people in Europe. The last
373 years´ figures show that the mobility of students was not recognizably
374 increasing even though this was the main reason this process was started in
375 1999.
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377 • As ECOSY we promote the idea of free education for everyone. The
378 evaluation of the Bologna process has to show if this value is promoted,
379 seeing if a greater reduction in social rigidity has been reached, or if actually
380 the opposite is attained.
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382 • The Evaluation of the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) has to
383 contain the question of attribution and comparability of Credits in different
384 European countries.
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386 • -It is going to be essential to evaluate if Bologna turned too much into
387 a Lisbon Strategy connected process, and if there is an influence not only on
388 the educational systems but also on the content of teaching and a so caused
389 commodification of education is given.
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390
Young Generation – Future of European Science and research
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392 By: MSD Czech Republic
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396 ECOSY, Young European Socialists, is well aware about the significant role science
397 and research play in more and more globalised and competitive world. It is a driving
398 force of development of our civilization. In addition, innovations and quality
399 education are key precondition for building knowledge-based society in Europe as
400 defined in the Lisbon Strategy.
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402 The European Union has been rightly emphasizing the need for strengthening the
403 European research effort. Establishing the European Research Area has
404 demonstrated the willingness of EU and Member States to provide new pan-European
405 framework for scientific endeavor. Indeed, ECOSY welcomed this step as a positive
406 response to new challenges of globalization. Nonetheless, we have to note that
407 Europe is far from reaching its own objectives in the field of science and is loosing its
408 track to knowledge-based society.
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410 ECOSY is particularly concerned about the lack of achievements when it comes to
411 financing science and attracting young generation for scientific career. We strongly
412 endorse commitments adopted at the Barcelona European Council in 2002 where the
413 European Union set itself the objective of investing 3 percent of its GDP to science
414 and research by 2010. However, it is obvious that EU will not fully achieve this level
415 in coming years. In contrary the gap between EU and its main competitors is further
416 widening. It means that Europe will lag behind other developed countries in
417 particular the United States and Japan. Meanwhile, the European Union spends more
418 than eight times more on Common Agricultural Policy than on investments to science
419 and research. We are convinced that this will endanger core principle of the Lisbon
420 Strategy. In consequence, it will have negative impacts on prosperity of today and
421 future generations as well as on Europe's position in the world economy. Therefore,
422 we call on the European Commission and Member States to double the budget on
423 research and development as it is the best way how to invest in our common future.
424
425 However, there are other challenges European science faces in addition to lack of
426 finances. In order to become "most competitive knowledge-based economy in the
427 world by 2010" the European Union needs to increase human resources devoted to
428 science. The number of researchers will have to rise by one-quarter (from 6 for every
429 1000 citizens to 8) if the EU is to keep up with the United States and Japan.
430 Therefore, the need for young people joining research community is ever more
431 important. Nonetheless, the scientific career is not attractive for young people. For
432 that reason ECOSY calls on the European Commission and appropriate ministries of
433 Member States to devote more funds on support for young scientists and on
434 increasing awareness about the possibilities of scientific career in Europe. We are
435 convinced that current programmes, such as "Marie Curie", are not sufficient tool for
436 attracting young people for science. Therefore we want an establishment of a new
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437 comprehensive programme focused only on young scientists which will have
438 necessary financial capacity to support their effort.
439
440 In addition, we are convinced that the European Union should not prefer applied to
441 basic research. We are of the opinion that the later is even more needed when
442 Europe faces long-term challenges of climate change which requires fundamental
443 transformation of economic and social patterns.
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445 Furthermore, ECOSY is convinced that the European Union needs to establish
446 effective Common European Scientific Policy which will further accelerate EU´s effort
447 to promote pan-European knowledge-based society. It should provide comprehensive
448 and strategic approach to long-term development of science and research in the
449 European Union.
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450
European Energy Policy – for sustainability
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453 JS in PvdA
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455
456 Energy is an indispensable part in our life. Our prosperity and living standard rely for
457 a large part on the availability and accessibility of cheap energy sources. Due to
458 climate change and the simple fact that we are running out of our natural resources,
459 we need to start using new energy sources on a massive scale. In addition, our
460 reserves of fossil fuels, in short-term perspective the main resource of energy, are
461 located in instable and politically turbulent regions. Dependence on these reserves
462 increases the overall vulnerability of the European Union’s energy supply.
463
464 International Climate agreements
465 ECOSY, Young European Socialists, welcomes the adoption of the climate change and
466 energy package in December 2008. It represents a step in the development of a
467 comprehensive energy policy for the European Union. At the same time it is a
468 positive step for putting European energy consumption, and our economy in general,
469 on environmentally friendly foots. However, ECOSY remains critical on the
470 agreement. At the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2007 at Bali, it was
471 opted that Western countries will reduce their emission of Co2 (greenhouse gasses)
472 with approximately 25 to 40% of 1990 levels in 2020. Although this European
473 ambition was supposed to be an example to the rest of the world, the European
474 climate change and energy package only foresees in a Co2 reduction of 20% in
475 2020, compared to 1990 levels. All the European member states at least have to
476 stick to their commitments now. Failure will have far reaching consequences, our
477 credibility will be damaged and it will open a window for other countries to avoid
478 their responsibility as well.
479
480 ECOSY believes the EU should aim for a decrease of Co2 emissions of at least 25% of
481 1990 levels and more renewable energy production than was agreed in, December
482 2008. ECOSY believes that a percentage of electricity production by renewable
483 energy should also be part of the agreements, with a minimum set to 25% as well.
484 This in order to boost investment in renewable energy and to overcome a possible
485 massive implementation of carbon capture and storage, rather than real ‘clean’
486 energy.
487
488 EU objectives
489 The long-term objective of EU energy policy should be to completely change from the
490 use of traditional fossil fuels to a diversity of renewable and other carbon-free
491 resources. This goal cannot be reached if member states will try to reach it on their
492 own. All available forms of clean energy in Europe have to be combined in order to
493 meet demand. Furthermore, the European Union should include neighbouring regions
494 and third world countries to its strategy on renewable resources. For the short term
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495 we need to become less vulnerable in the supply of our fossil fuels. Dependence on
496 these supplies increases the overall vulnerability of the European Union’s energy
497 supply as demonstrated by the recent gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
498 The goals of CO2 mitigation and sustainable energy production should be EU-wide.
499 ECOSY therefore calls upon the EU member states to aim for a common European
500 goal at Bali. This way the most efficient regions for sustainable energy production
501 can be utilized for the goals of the EU as a whole, rather than having individual
502 countries implementing relatively expensive local technologies.
503
504
505 EU budget
506 If the European Union is to change into a non-fossil economy, we have to consider a
507 redistribution of EU funds. Realising this change of energy sources will require
508 massive (public) investments. The multi-annual financial framework of the EU does
509 not reflect these needs. ECOSY thinks that using a substantial part of the current
510 expenditures on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for energy initiatives would
511 make a big difference at the European level. Using a part of the CAP budget on
512 energy projects would significantly accelerate the growth of the renewable energy
513 sector. Moreover, it would allow the European Union to invest in the technical
514 development of renewable energy sources, energy saving measurements and it
515 might increase private investments. Finally it will be good for our economy as well. If
516 we can get a lead on the rest of the world, we might be able to become a energy
517 producing Union. A sustainable and safe energy policy for the European Union will, in
518 all cases, require the deployment of significant financial resources.
519
520 ECOSY calls on the Commission and Member States to confirm their political
521 commitment by putting energy as the priority of the next multi-annual financial
522 framework for the years 2014-2020.
523
524 Short term energy supply
525 ECOSY is aware that, for the short term, we will remain dependable on traditional –
526 fossil- energy. In order to facilitate the transition to a non-fossil economy, it will be
527 necessary to secure sufficient supplies of energy resources from outside of the EU. In
528 particular natural gas supplies present a major challenge to the Union. Increasing
529 dependence on Russia is not desirable and alternatives need to be developed. Not to
530 exclude Russia but to water down potential impacts of serious interruption of
531 supplies. Therefore ECOSY supports the realization of the Southern Gas Corridor,
532 including the Nabucco pipeline, which would connect European market with Caspian
533 and Middle East reserves. Furthermore, ECOSY thinks the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)
534 technology provides a safe and competitive resource of gas supplies, which should be
535 exploited much more in the coming years.
536
537 Technologies
538 DESERTEC
539 In 2003 the TREC (Trans-mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation) network
540 was founded by the Club of Rome, the Hamburg Climate Protection Foundation, and
541 the National Energy Research Center of Jordan. Their cooperative efforts led to the
542 so called DESERTEC plan in 2006. This plan is both realistic and ambitious and
543 foresees in long term sustainable power supply for the EU-MENA region (European
544 Union – Middle East – North Africa), being able to provide in the largest part of the
545 2050 energy needs of this region. The technologies and network the DESERTEC plan
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546 proposes can furthermore be used for the desalination of seawater, resulting in the
547 availability of clean drinking water in this region, which is otherwise also main
548 challenge for the coming years. Furthermore the energy prices will go down
549 drastically, from 21 eurocents / kWh to 4 eurocents / kWh, giving more people acces
550 to cheap clean energy.
551 The DESERTEC plan foresees in a network of solar thermal energy, solar photovoltaic
552 energy, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy and biomass energy, all
553 utilized in the regions where they are best utilized. This network is connected
554 through a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) powerlines network, being able to
555 send the electricity all over the region with limited losses.
556 ECOSY believes that the DESERTEC proposal is realistic and should be fully backed
557 by the EU member states. ECOSY also calls upon the EU to put pressure on the USA,
558 China, South America, and similar large (growing) economies, to develop a similar
559 plan for energy production.
560
561 HVDC Network
562 For the realisation of the DESERTEC plan a new type of power grid is required. A new
563 technology, though fully functional and already in use in some regions of the world,
564 is the HVDC type network. Besides major investments in energy facilities, also major
565 investments in the network are required. However, a large part of the currently
566 existing high voltage network used for electricity distribution used in Europe is up for
567 renewal, and therefore this is the perfect time to start investing in this new type of
568 network.
569 ECOSY therefore recommends the EU member states to fully invest in a HVDC
570 network, connecting the EU-MENA regions.
571
572 Electricity production
573 The DESERTEC plan foresees in energy production through a combination of
574 technologies: Wind energy in the North Sea and Western North African region,
575 Concentrated Thermal Solar Power in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East
576 and in the south of Europe, geothermal energy where possible, photovoltaics,
577 biomass, and hydropower, all in locations best suited for those (see the DESERTEC
578 plan for more details). The advantage of this is that each technology will be best
579 suited for its goal in each of the regions throughout the EU-MENA region, and that a
580 spread of technologies in a spread of locations will limit dependence on one region or
581 technology. Also, it assures that on all times energy will be available, throughout the
582 day and night, thanks to among others heat storage for night production of energy.
583 All of the technologies mentioned in the DESERTEC plan have been fully tested and
584 are fully accessible. For this reason ECOSY calls upon the EU member states to fully
585 invest in the further development and further financing of these technologies.
586
587 Heat production
588 A second form of energy needed is heat. The DESERTEC plan foresees in the
589 production of heat through concentrated thermal solar power plants. However, heat
590 transport will be harder to accomplish and therefore other technologies will be
591 needed as well. ECOSY therefore calls upon the EU to invest in combined heat and
592 power plants, in the utilisation of ‘rest-heat’, and primarily in the implementation of
593 solar boilers by private households. Not only will this reduce the amount of CO2
594 emitted, but it will also limit our dependence on gas (which is primarily used for heat
595 production).
596
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597
598 Short term possibilities
599 The DESERTEC plan foresees in short term projects, to start with the shift towards a
600 sustainable energy supply for the EU-MENA region and to give the potential for new
601 technologies to develop: The Gaza Solar Power and Water project (1 GW in CSP
602 production with desalination of water), and the Sana’a Solar Water Project (solar
603 desalination plant). Both project have a high sense of urgency and have the
604 advantage that they will also provide in more political stability in the regions, as well
605 as overcome some humanitarian disasters waiting to happen. Investment for both
606 projects is estimated at 5 billion Euro. ECOSY calls upon the EU to take part in these
607 investments, as a first step towards realising the DESERTEC project.
608
609 Nuclear Power
610 Nuclear Power was long seen as a solution to the worlds energy needs. However,
611 several disasters have shown that it is not always a safe option. Also nuclear
612 proliferation endangers the possible use of nuclear power. Various developments
613 over the past years have made nuclear power stations more reliable, but many
614 unknowns still remain. Some of those are how to handle highly radio-active leftover
615 materials, how to account for ‘human’ errors, through which even the safest systems
616 might fail, or how to supply enough fuel.
617 In the pursuit to a CO2 neutral world, nuclear energy can be seen as a very useful
618 alternative to fossil fuels, due to the lacking of CO2 emissions (over the lifetime of a
619 nuclear power plant this is even less than that of a solar panel). On the other hand
620 problems still exist, as mentioned earlier, even though many developments have
621 been made. ECOSY thinks the potential of nuclear energy should not be
622 underestimated, but also thinks that it should not get primary attention. In the
623 bigger scheme of things, ECOSY favors the closure of coal power plants before the
624 closure of nuclear power plants, for ECOSY sees the danger of global warming as
625 higher than that of radioactive waste. However, ECOSY will not opt for the
626 investment in new nuclear power plants as a structural contribution to the electricity
627 supply of the world / the EU-MENA region. ECOSY fully supports and believes in the
628 potential of the DESERTEC plan, which in the end will limit nuclear energy to a
629 minimum. However, in a transition phase to the full realisation of the DESERTEC
630 plan, ECOSY favors nuclear power over coal power.
631 ECOSY also recognises that in some areas nuclear power is extremely useful, such as
632 in space flight. ECOSY therefore aims for nuclear power to, in the long term, only be
633 used in those specific cases where no other alternative is available, thereby limiting
634 its use to almost zero compared to the current use.
635
636 Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
637 ECOSY believes that CCS is not a sustainable solution for the problem at hand and
638 therefore should not be funded by the EU member states. CCS will only limit the
639 impact of fossil fuels to the environment (once proven safe), but will not overcome
640 the problem of importing energy from politically unstable regions or the shortage of
641 fossil fuels in the longer term. The DESERTEC plan foresees in possibilities for CO2
642 neutrality without the need of CCS. Furthermore CCS would not be beneficial to
643 many Europen countries, since coal production is extremely limited within the
644 borders of the EU, and would therefore only benefit a technology that can only be
645 sustained by imports of fossil fuels. Research towards the potential of CCS will be
646 performed for a large part by coal producing countries - such as Australia - anyway,
647 once CO2 limits are strictly enforced. Therefore it is not necessary for the EU to
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648 invest in this technology. ECOSY therefore calls upon the EU to invest in real
649 sustainable technologies rather than fossil fuel sustaining technologies such as CCS.
650
651 Energy Preservation
652 Currently a lot of energy is wasted, through to e.g. heat leakage in buildings,
653 unsustainable lamps, etc. Almost 40% of energy currently used is being lost without
654 actually being used. ECOSY therefore calls upon the governments of EU member
655 states to set ecological standards for new buildings, and to provide financing for the
656 improvements of existing buildings. By limiting the amount of energy wasted, less
657 energy will be needed resulting in less CO2 emissions and the building of less new
658 energy plants, as well as less costs in energy use for the end users.
659
660 Financial systems
661 ECOSY calls upon the EU member states to invest in a common EU wide feed-in-tarif
662 system. This system will guarantee a minimum electricity price for a certain type of
663 electricity, throughout the EU. With this it becomes financially interesting to invest in
664 certain types of energy production, especially in the regions best suited for it. Better
665 technologies and implementation in more efficient regions will provide higher profit
666 margins (due to the minimum price guarantee) making both investing and innovation
667 in the technologies interesting for investors.
668 Furthermore funds must be set aside for research and development of new
669 technologies and startup potential must be offered to new technologies, to bring
670 costs down. ECOSY therefore calls upon the EU to also provide enough financing for
671 research, and for the EU governments to be able to act as ‘first buyer,’ giving new
672 technologies the chance to prove themselves.
673
674 Sustainable energy and developing countries
675 The energy needs of developing countries are ever growing, and might be
676 accelerated by sudden economic growth, such as in China. Furthermore the access to
677 energy is a primary aspect of development (both economically as socially) and
678 should therefore not be limited to developing countries. To overcome the threat that
679 only the Western countries will benefit from the shift towards cheap clean energy
680 and the threat of not decreasing CO2 emissions due to sudden economic growths of
681 developing countries, developing countries should be allowed full participation in the
682 development of these new technologies. ECOSY therefore believes that the EU should
683 provide developing countries with the clean energy technologies wherever possible,
684 free of ‘development’ costs.
685
686
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686
On post-Kyoto climate change architecture
687
689
690
691 The message of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is
692 very clear. The severity and probability of climate change is even greater than we
693 previously expected. Potential of enormous economic, social and human losses are
694 ever greater as the international community is not able to provide proper reply to
695 this challenge. Although the Kyoto Protocol is an important step on our way to
696 reduce impacts of our economic activities, for many reasons it does not provide
697 sustainable solution. The post-Kyoto arrangement will have to build much more
698 effective and ambitious framework for both mitigation of and adaption to climate
699 change.
700
701 ECOSY is of the opinion that stability of world climate is a public good which
702 needs to be maintained and managed by all members of the international
703 community. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to pursue the mitigation of climate
704 change as the cost-effective way of prevention of major stresses for the humanity. It
705 can be even very unwise to abandon mitigation as Stern's report confirms that
706 preventing warming of our planet of more than 2 degrees can be much cheaper than
707 removing the damage caused by it. Hence, ECOSY considers necessary to put
708 mitigation in to the centre of new climate change architecture. ECOSY believes that
709 international community can cut its greenhouse gasses emissions by more than 20%
710 by 2020. However, it is necessary to further reduce CO2 production by more than
711 40% by 2050. ECOSY considers that the new international agreement on climate
712 change has to include these long-term goals if it is to have any significant impact on
713 global warming prevention.
714
715 ECOSY is aware about the need to raise public support for international effort
716 leading to prevention of average temperature increase. Such a framework will have
717 to solve more effectively problems of participation, effectiveness and compliance. For
718 these reasons, any functional system will have to include both developed and
719 developing countries. However, it should be based on solidarity and shouldn't
720 prevent developing countries to undergo substantial economic and social
721 development. It can be reached by strengthening international cooperation, transfer
722 of technologies and new models of clean development mechanism which will not
723 allow Western companies to abuse this system for their economic gains. In contrary,
724 it should accelerate introduction of new clean technologies in developing countries
725 and their economic development in general.
726
727 ECOSY believes that in order to mitigate climate change an international cap-
728 and-trade will have to be introduced as the most effective system of reducing global
729 greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, this system can ensure compliance of all
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730 participants by providing financial stimulus to them. It is important as the

731 participation of all polluters is precondition for any successful climate change
732
733 ECOSY acknowledges that poor communities in the developing world will be
734 the most severely affected by the climate change. However, these communities are
735 not the cause of global warming. Therefore, ECOSY stresses the need to introduce
736 new financial instruments which will assist developing countries with adaptation to
737 rising temperatures. It is responsibility of main polluters, EU and North America, to
738 bear the financial burden they bring to developing world.
739
740
741 ECOSY is convinced that new international forestry policy is needed in order
742 to curtail deforestation. In particular, tropical forests are enormous CO2 sink which
743 needs to be preserved. However, Kyoto Protocol does not provide effective financial
744 tools to protect forests or to stimulate aforestation activities. Post-Kyoto
745 arrangement has to include introduce new instruments which will regard forests as
746 an important environmental service and not as a source of timber.
747
748 ECOSY calls on the European Union and Member States to put as their priority
749 substantial transition to non-carbon society. Europe needs sustainable green future
750 which will not threaten next generations´ chance live decent life. Europe can make
751 this change. ECOSY strongly believes that it is feasible and reasonable.
752
753
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753
For Funding for development
754
756 Irish Labour Youth
757
758
759 ECOSY believes that as Young European Socialists we are committed to seeing a
760 fairer distribution of wealth along global lines. The Global Trading Regime emanating
761 from the 20th Century through the organisations of the WTO, IMF and World Bank
762 have failed to adequately address the issues regarding an increase in poverty, both
763 relative poverty and absolute poverty. Rather we have witnessed the richer parts of
764 the world increase their share of wealth while the worlds poorest have been left
765 behind.
766
767 ECOSY acknowledges that we are in the midst of a global financial crisis. ECOSY is
768 also aware of the way in which nation states have rushed towards securing funding
769 to bail out the banking system. ECOSY is further aware that the resources in finance
770 needed to adequately fund the Millennium Development Goals is but a fraction of
771 that which has been sourced and deployed to save the world’s largest and most
772 wealthy companies already. ECOSY further believes that this current economic crisis
773 will have a greater impact of the worlds developing nations then anywhere else on
774 the globe. For this reason ECOSY is concerned that funding for international
775 development relating to the worlds developing countries is under threat. ECOSY
776 further maintains that now more then ever it is vital in the fight to combat global
777 poverty that developed countries remain firm in their commitment to achieving the
778 Millennium Development Goals by the agreed date of 2015.
779
780 ECOSY calls on the European Union and its Member States to resist any moves
781 towards reducing and cutting back funding pertaining to oversees development aid.
782 ECOSY believes that it is the worlds poorest that will suffer the greatest under the
783 current crisis and that now more then ever a strong commitment towards reducing
784 poverty is needed. It is unacceptable to abandon international commitments set in
785 Monterrey Consensus on Financing Development and in Doha Declaration adopted in
786 2008.
787
788 ECOSY reiterates that policy coherence for development needs to be fully
789 implemented in all policies of the European Union and its Member States which can
790 have negative impact on developing countries. ECOSY is concerned that efforts to
791 accelerate development are jeopardized by other policies of developed world such as
792 agricultural or trade policy. It is necessary to establish a European check-list with
793 developmental criteria which has to be implemented to all decision-making processes
794 in the EU.
795
796 ECOSY believes that as the global financial system can be held responsible for the
797 current crisis that it can also in some ways redress this problem. ECOSY calls
798 therefore for the application of the Tobin Tax policy regarding foreign exchange
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799 transactions to be applied to global trading in the international monetary markets.

800 ECOSY further calls for this rate of tax to be set at the original level suggested of
801 1%, and resists calls to lower this to between the levels proposed of 0.1%- 0.25%.
802 ECOSY believes that the income generated from such a tax be deployed in the
803 funding and financing of the Millennium Development goals and also for further
804 financing development for less developed countries.
805
806 ECOSY recognizes significance of remittances for many developing countries. Indeed,
807 it unacceptable to allow financial institutions and intermediaries in Europe and
808 elsewhere to abuse this financial flow for their excessive enrichment. The EU should
809 ensure that people supporting their relatives are not exploited by introduction of
810 standards on money transfers to developing countries. Furthermore, developing
811 countries are in need of assistance in strengthening their banking systems in order to
812 facilitate sending money to relatives by foreign workers in rich countries.
813
814 Furthermore, developing countries should be further assisted with mobilizing their
815 domestic resources for development purposes. They are endowed with substantial
816 reserves of raw materials or other tradable commodities which would provide
817 necessary financial base for their economic and social development. However,
818 domestic resources are very often misused and badly managed because of various
819 internal and international factors. In addition, many developing countries suffer from
820 resource curse resulting in wastage and distortions of precious financial resources.
821 ECOSY believes that the European Union should support international initiatives
822 aimed at elimination of resource curse. We ask the Commission and Member States
823 to make actions such as Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Joint Oil Data
824 Initiative or Revenue Watch legally binding to all parties involved. Moreover,
825 European companies involved in mining industry should be made more transparent
826 according to principles of Publish What You Pay. ECOSY is of the opinion that natural
827 resources consumption should also be taxed in order to raise additional funds for
828 financing development.
829
830 ECOSY is concerned not just with the financing of development, but also with ethical
831 issues as to where such funding is deployed. ECOSY believes that funding released
832 through over seas aid must serve to not only tackle reductions in poverty, but also to
833 stimulate a sustainable environment of economic growth within these developing
834 countries to ensure that the effects of poverty reduction are upheld over a long term
835 basis. In order for this to happen, a closer working partnership needs to be fostered
836 between donating states and donor states. Financing given to less developed
837 countries must first of all meet strict transparency regulations, so that any aid given
838 can be examined in its efficiency in effecting real long term development and poverty
839 reduction.
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
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848
On the recent developments in Cyprus
849
850 By: EDEK Youth
851
852
853
i
854 Considering the present status quo in Cyprus established through the use of force
855 and sustained by military strength, as unacceptable;
856 Considering that the continuous occupation of the northern part of Cyprus by Turkish
857 troops constitutes a fundamental breach of both International Law and the acquis
858 communautaire and can adversely affect Turkish-EU relations also in the framework
859 of enlargement;
860 Considering the continuous non-recognition of the Republic of Cyprus by Turkey as a
861 major obstacle towards Turkey’s further EU integration;
862
863 ECOSY,
864
865 Reaffirms all its previous resolutions on Cyprus;
866
867 Welcomes the initiative undertaken by the President of the Republic of Cyprus
868 Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and the launch of
869 direct negotiations in September 2008 for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
870
871 Calls upon the involved parties to focus on the process by maximizing their efforts in
872 order to create common understanding on the parameters of the settlement, having
873 in mind that the only acceptable solution should provide for the transformation of the
874 Republic of Cyprus into a bi-zonal, bi-communal federal state, with a single
875 sovereignty, a single international personality and a single citizenship, based on the
876 implementation of all relevant UN resolutions, the High Level Agreements of 1977
877 and 1979 and in accordance with the principles of the acquis communautaire.
878
879
880 Expects from Turkey to constructively facilitate the negotiation process by
881 abandoning positions such as the existence of "two states" and "two peoples" in
882 Cyprus, the establishment of a confederation and the “virgin birth” of a new state in
883 Cyprus.
884
885 Calls upon Turkey and the Turkish occupying forces to demolish barricades and to
886 allow the opening of more crossing points across the island which will further
887 facilitate the rapprochement of the two communities adding value to the positive
888 atmosphere on the island.
889
890 Considers that the implementation of the confidence building measures agreed by
891 the two leaders will further facilitate the sustainment of the positive atmosphere and
892 notes that the withdrawal of Turkish troops will further facilitate the process.
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893
894 Calls upon the international community and particularly the EU to actively participate
895 in the solution process by elaborating on ways and means to guarantee, inter alia,
896 the legitimate security of Cyprus in any proposed plan for a solution as the
897 continuation of the 1959 Treaty of Guarantee does not meet the legitimate security
898 concerns of Cypriots.
899
900 Reiterates its commitment to support the efforts made towards the vision of a united
901 Cyprus, based on a federal solution, which will reunify the institutions, the economy,
902 the society and the people of Cyprus within a framework of security and peace.
903
904
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904
Western Balkans enlargement for people of the region
905
907
908
909 ECOSY welcomes progress in Stabilization and Association Process with Western
910 Balkans countries. Signing of agreements with Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and
911 Montenegro in 2008 was positive political and symbolic signal to people of Western
912 Balkans. Indeed, the European Union has to closer and closer its ties with countries
913 of the region in a more practical manner now if it is to fulfil its commitments from
914 Thessaloniki Council. The ultimate goal has to be full accession of these countries to
915 the Union. However, EU has to show to ordinary people in short-term that European
916 integration has positive and far-reaching benefits for their daily life and economic
917 and social situation.
918
919 In particular, visa system liberalization has been a pledge done by the Union which
920 hasn't been fully implemented. The short-term visa liberalization for certain groups
921 of citizens has been, indeed, positive step. However, it is far from being what people
922 of the Western Balkans expect from the EU. ECOSY calls for full liberalization of visa
923 regimes as a way to facilitate people-to-people contacts and to accelerate economic
924 and social integration of the region to the EU.
925
926 Furthermore, the EU has neglected the social situation of citizens of Western Balkan
927 countries. Indeed, ECOSY supports the capacity building and good governance
928 initiatives financed by the EU. However, it is of the opinion that the EU´s Instrument
929 for Pre-Accession Assistance should be used for investment in social security systems
930 and pro-active employment policies. The unemployment rates are still relatively high
931 in most of the countries. Therefore, the EU should assist the region to translate
932 recent economic growth into more and better jobs. In addition, the EU should give
933 more support to work of the civil society organizations active in the field of social
934 services provision. The new instruments, hence, have to be developed if the EU is to
935 play positive role in making the social reality of Western Balkans better.
936
937 There are still significant shortfalls when it comes to national and regional
938 infrastructure. The recent gas crisis has demonstrated vulnerability energy networks
939 of Western Balkans as many of the countries were seriously affected by shortages, in
940 particular Serbia. Besides, blackouts are still common in Albania and other parts of
941 the region. New energy resources have to be hence exploited in order to facilitate
942 the economic development, in particular potential of local renewable energy.
943 Furthermore, it is necessary to strengthen interconnections between the EU and
944 Western Balkans infrastructure not only in the field of energy but in communications
945 and transport too. It will require more financial commitments of the European Union
946 which should be better matched with national funds in order to use the best of
947 possible synergies.
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948
949 However, the EU should keep the main focus on accession process as a tool for full
950 political and economic integration of the region. In order to further accelerate
951 enlargement for Western Balkan countries the EU should propose a concrete road
952 map for each country accession process. It should contain a general schedule based
953 on precondition of reform implementation. Moreover, we are of the opinion that it is
954 a time to give Albania and Serbia candidate status and to launch accession
955 negotiations with Former Republic of Macedonia as these countries have achieved
956 significant progress in last years.
957
958
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958
EU Policy towards Eastern Neighbours and Russia
959
961
962
963 Initial situation:
964
965 In today’s globalised world, Europe is facing many challenges against its prosperity
966 and social consensus. Those challenges have different character and occur due to
967 different reasons: from the energy dependence of the Old Continent to demographic
968 changes. The challenges also include security and international political issues, illegal
969 immigration and trade, etc.
970
971 Most of the above challenges have supranational character and wide range of impact,
972 and Europeans feel this impact throughout the continent. Most of the occurrences
973 reach beyond individual national borders of the EU 27. This is something we have to
974 take into account if we want our strategies and policies to bring the wanted results.
975
976 Fifty years of experience with the European integration show that many of these
977 common challenges are better met on the international, multilateral level, and in
978 most cases we see that only joint coordinated approach can bring satisfactory
979 results.
980
981 European integration is founded not only on common economic and political interests
982 but also on cultural and social values, many of which found their expression in the
983 Copenhagen criteria. Therefore, democracy and human rights are the foundations of
984 European integration.
985
986 Accentuation of those values presently precludes further EU enlargement to the east,
987 as many of the countries still face problems regarding human rights observance and
988 democracy, which, as we said, form the fundamental conditions for inclusion in the
989 European integration process.
990
991 With the awareness of the limited possibilities of further EU enlargement, it is
992 necessary to look for other forms of multilateral international cooperation, which can
993 significantly help when dealing with the above challenges.
994
995 Therefore the European Neighbourhood Policy was established in 2004 following the
996 EU enlargement by Central and Eastern European countries. The ENP focuses among
997 others on promotion and support of democracy, justice, human rights and
998 sustainable development.
999
1000
1001
1002
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1003 What we want:

1004
1005 We, young social democrats, socialist and Labourites, support further deepening of
1006 European eastern cooperation, which has to focus its strategies strongly on the social
1007 and economic needs of the population of the relevant countries.
1008
1009 We, as representatives of the young Left, want to stress the fact that there are
1010 people in those countries, whose social and economic rights are often not respected.
1011 High unemployment rate, extreme economic gaps and poverty afflict the population
1012 of those countries. The experience of European democracies shows that in such
1013 conditions it is difficult to create and maintain liberal democratic system. Such
1014 circumstances are also closely related to the above-mentioned challenges and often
1015 serve as catalysers. This includes illegal immigration, smuggling, and other security
1016 threats, but also social dumping and abuse of foreign workforce throughout Europe.
1017
1018 Keeping with the ideas and values of European Left we request that the new
1019 strategies promoted within the European Neighbourhood Policy in order to
1020 strengthen democracy and human rights observance stressed the importance of
1021 social rights development of our eastern neighbours.
1022
1023 We also believe that effective solutions in this area may help to mollify the negative
1024 impact of the above-mentioned social and economic issues, which could also lead to
1025 the prevention of the mentioned challenges.
1026
1027 We believe that the ENP should take a new stance towards the state of democracy in
1028 the Russian Federation and its foreign policy, which considers EU activities in the
1029 region of the former Soviet republics a violation of its own power politics. Therefore it
1030 is necessary to promote the foreign policy advantages of improved stability and
1031 related economic policy.
1032
1033 We, young socialists, refuse to accept war as the continuation of politics by other
1034 means, and we ask for an effective diplomatic solution of the frozen conflicts in
1035 Caucasus. Those conflicts represent a direct threat not only to the area but may
1036 impact Europe and its relations with its eastern neighbours, especially Russia, as
1037 happened during the recent conflict in South Ossetia.
1038
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1038
China
1039
1041 SJÖ
1042
1043 In today’s globalised world hit by deep financial and economic crisis, the depth and
1044 impact of which it is difficult to foresee, China is a key player within the global
1045 community. This was obvious during the recent visit by Hillary Clinton, the new US
1046 Secretary of State, in China, which marked the beginning of new relationship
1047 between Obama’s government and China.
1048 Today, China is one of the strongest global economies, second only to the US, and its
1049 foreign exchange reserves in US dollars are largest in the world. (Before the financial
1050 crisis outbreak, it was almost three trillion dollars.) Therefore the role of China is
1051 irreplaceable when looking for global solutions to the financial and economic crisis.
1052 China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and is among those
1053 countries in the international community which have nuclear arsenal at their
1054 disposal. Therefore China must carry large amount of responsibility for the
1055 international security. The attempts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass
1056 destruction, attempts to promote international disarmament, combating international
1057 terrorism and the approach towards other significant security threats (different forms
1058 of organised crime, such as drugs, gun and human trafficking) require full
1059 cooperation of China within the international community, especially with the US and
1060 the European Union.)
1061 With regard to the climatic changes and global warming, China needs to claim its co-
1062 responsibility for the present situation, and to be ready to participate in global
1063 solutions. Although China is still listed as a developing country, it is one of the
1064 largest polluters and greenhouse gas emitters. This not only further enhances global
1065 warming and climatic changes, but also has significant negative impact on the public
1066 health. Eight out of ten world’s most polluted cities are in China. In recent years, the
1067 number of cancers and other serious illnesses grew alarmingly.
1068 China is a key player regarding regional security in the Far East and South-East Asia.
1069 China’s responsibility for the security of those regions, and its role in resolving
1070 regional conflicts is irreplaceable. The role of China during the sixlateral talks about
1071 the North Korea nuclear programme is a key one, as China is the closest ally and
1072 largest business partner of this country.
1073 As a global player of the international policy, security and economy, China is also co-
1074 responsible for future developments within the African continent. Chinese activities in
1075 Africa are so far mainly focused on securing energy and other natural sources in
1076 exchange for business activities and infrastructure and education investments and
1077 other areas. Tolerating and passively watching gross human rights violation, crimes
30
għall-Ewropa
1078 against humanity, ethnic cleansing and other acts violating international
1079 humanitarian laws makes China directly co-responsible for those acts.
1080 China’s long term problem is the situation regarding human and civil rights in the
1081 country. There is no political plurality and democracy in China, freedom of speech is
1082 suppressed and dissidents and representatives of the emerging civic society are
1083 permanently persecuted. A special problem is represented by the situation in the
1084 Chinese autonomous area of Tibet, where China has been suppressing political,
1085 ethnic, cultural and religious rights of native Tibetans for fifty years.
1086 ECOSY appeals to the Chinese government to cooperate as much as possible with the
1087 European Union and other countries and organisations in finding tools and efficient
1088 solutions to the global financial and economic crisis.
1089 ECOSY calls on the Chinese government to cooperate as much as possible with the
1090 new American government of Barack Obama, the European Union, and NATO in their
1091 attempts to prevent weapons of mass destruction proliferation (Iran, North Korea),
1092 and in their fight against international terrorism (Afghanistan). We especially appeal
1093 to the Chinese government to exert pressure on the North Korean regime to
1094 immediately terminate all activities related to the North Korean nuclear programme,
1095 and to reconcile the relations between South and North Korea, with the possibility of
1096 a future unification of the Korean peninsula into one state.
1097 ECOSY appeals to the Chinese government to fully cooperate within the international
1098 community in order to prevent global warming. Therefore we appeal to the Chinese
1099 government to follow the example of the European Union and set binding objectives
1100 for the Chinese economy leading towards significant and long term decrease of
1101 greenhouse gas emissions, and the increase of use of renewable energy sources.
1102 With regard to the issue of stability and security in the Far East and South-East Asia,
1103 ECOSY calls on the Chinese government to chose a dialogue and not coercion and
1104 intimidation in the form of e.g. military manoeuvres, when dealing with the issue of
1105 One-China policy (Taiwan). We also appeal to the Chinese government to exert
1106 pressure on its allies and friendly regimes in this region (North Korea, Burma)
1107 towards decreasing the tension in the region, further opening of those countries to
1108 the world, and their progressive inclusion into various forms of regional and
1109 international cooperation.
1110 With regard to the future of the African continent, ECOSY strongly appeals to the
1111 Chinese government to not tolerate cases of gross violations of the international
1112 humanitarian laws (e.g. Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe), to support the policy
1113 of good governance and in the extent of its possibilities to intervene against cases of
1114 human rights violation and corruption.
1115 Finally, ECOSY strongly appeals to the Chinese government to observe human and
1116 civil rights in China. Therefore, we call the Chinese government to initiate a dialogue
1117 with dissidents and the civic society and to liberalise and democratise the political life
1118 in the country. With regard to the Tibet issue, we strongly appeal to the Chinese
1119 government to respect the national, cultural and religious specifics and to guarantee
1120 Tibet its political (own administration), ethnic, cultural, and religious autonomy.
31
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1121
Resolution Women & Health

 
1122
1123 By: SJÖ
1124 JS in PvdA
1125 Mladi Forum
1126
1127
1128 In the ECOSY manifesto “Change for Europe – 9 deliverables for 2009”, we pledge
1129 for more social security; high quality public health care, education and life-long
1130 learning and we promote high quality and accessible services for everyone,
1131 everywhere. Fundamental sectors that must be run in the sphere of the government
1132 as public services are security, justice, health care, education, water, energy, waste
1133 management, public transport, post and telecommunication, public media and
1134 information, culture, sports, childcare, social housing, and social security. They are a
1135 key component of the European welfare state, provide the base of our comparative
1136 advantage and guarantee social inclusion through the principle of non-exclusion for
1137 everybody - insuring that public rather than individual interest prevails.
1138
1139 The accessibility and affordability of a high quality public health care system with
1140 strict safety regulations on the job and universal health insurance is vital to the well
1141 being of every one in Europe. Health care must also be responsive to and inclusive to
1142 everybody. ECOSY – Young European Socialists demand:
1143 - The further implementation of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) in
1144 order to guarantee access to health care for all inhabitants of the Union in all
1145 Member States.
1146 - Any discrimination by health care insurance companies, especially against
1147 women, LGBTQ, poor and people from specific ethnic background must be
1148 sanctioned and put to an end.
1149 - Problems of lower quality/lower coverage health insurance for women due to
1150 lower participation in the labour markets constitute discrimination and must
1151 be tackled.
1152
1153 At the same time, especially in the discussion of health we must recognize that all
1154 bodies are different and require specialized medical attention. Particularly, women
1155 have different medical needs and respond differently to medical treatment than men.
1156 Both treatment and research into the development of medication must pay attention
1157 to that. ECOSY – Young European Socialists:
1158 - welcomes the European Commission consultation paper on EU action to
1159 reduce health inequalities and its aim to Raise awareness about the extent
1160 and consequences of health inequalities and to promote the tackling of health
1161 inequalities as a policy priority both at Community level and in all Member
1162 States; to Improve the mechanisms to monitor inequalities in health across
1163 the EU; to Support Member States’ actions to tackle health inequalities
1164 notably by highlighting possible ways to prevent and address health
1165 inequalities, by encouraging greater policy coordination and best-practice
1166 exchange and through financial support via the Structural Funds and other EU
1167 funding instruments; and to mobilize all relevant EU policies to contribute to
32
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1168 reducing inequalities in health by bringing together under a coherent

1169 framework the work of different Commission services, in line with the 2008
1170 Renewed Social Agenda and the 2007 Health Strategy.
1171 - Treatment of patients must be responsive to their needs and must be gender
1172 sensitive. Women must have the right to demand a female doctor in all cases.
1173 - The EU must encourage research into the effects of medication on all groups
1174 in the population whose bodies are different from that of the standard white
1175 middle age male by increasing funding opportunities for such research.
1176 - More funding must be made available for research into medical conditions
1177 associated specifically with certain sub-groups in societies such as those
1178 related to women’s reproductive cycle.
1179 - ECOSY supports the initiative to make available for all women
1180 mammography’s and early smear tests and vaccination against cervical
1181 cancer.
1182 - The current anti-conception pills, which is the most popular method to
1183 prevent pregnancies, is highly disruptive to the female body. Research into
1184 the improvement of anti-conception must continue.
1185
1186 More gender sensitive health and safety standards at work
1187
1188 In February 2007, the European Commission published its 2007-2012 Health and
1189 Safety at work strategy. ECOSY welcomes the active involvement of the advisory
1190 committee on health and safety at work (ACSH) and the increased attention to
1191 health and safety in the work place in general. The EP report on transposition and
1192 application of Directive on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for
1193 men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and
1194 promotion, and working conditions deplores the fact that legislation in several
1195 Member States does not include in a sufficiently clear and explicit manner definitions
1196 of direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment and
1197 deplores the fact that some Member States have not recognized in an explicit
1198 manner the right to return to the same job or an equivalent post after maternity
1199 leave. ECOSY – Young European Socialists:
1200 - Demand the incorporation of risks specific to pregnant women in general
1201 health and safety regulations. Due to the fact that first weeks of a pregnancy,
1202 when employers are usually not informed, are the weeks that the foetus is
1203 most vulnerable to genetic malformation, mutations and abnormalities,
1204 general risk assessments should use higher standards and especially include
1205 assessments of risks for pregnant women.
1206 - Demand better application of health safety regulation in the informal
1207 economy, such as cleaning and babysitting in private households, in which
1208 women are overrepresented.
1209 - High quality enterprise health policies should include specific attention to
1210 mental and physical illnesses, especially providing counseling services for
1211 gender based discrimination and sexual harassment.
1212 - Welcome the Commission proposals that the allowance paid to a worker on
1213 maternity leave should be equivalent to her full salary as well as the ban on
1214 dismissal.”
1215 - Support the Estrela recommendations that women must have the right to
1216 return to the same job or an equivalent post as before maternity leave.
1217 - Support the Estrela recommendations that after giving birth working time
1218 should be reduced in order to accommodate breastfeeding, without entailing
33
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1219 any loss of privileges and that women should not have to work at night while
1220 they were pregnant, in the weeks immediately before and after the birth, or
1221 for as long as they were breastfeeding.
1222 - Agrees with the Estrela report recommendation that pregnant workers and
1223 those who had recently given birth or were breastfeeding, along with fathers
1224 on paternity leave, would be entitled to refuse to work overtime but stresses
1225 that the right to refuse overtime should be a right for all workers, not only for
1226 pregnant women and young parents.
1227
1228 Health and safety in the home
1229
1230 Health and safety at home is an important issue for women, for many of whom work
1231 does not end at the front door but increases due to care responsibilities and
1232 reproductive labour. Stress related problems due to a distorted work-life balance are
1233 especially grave for women who still take on the bulk of reproductive labour.
1234 Secondly, the care of ill family members most often falls on women. Women live on
1235 average 6 years longer than men, but most of these additional years are lived with
1236 activity limitation due to bad health. ECOSY – Young European Socialists:
1237 - Demand recognition including more compensation for the work that women
1238 and men do taking care of sick relatives and its potential repercussions on
1239 care-givers own health
1240 - Supports the equal division of reproductive labour as a priority area in the
1241 2006-2010 Roadmap for equality between women and men.
1242 At the same time, the home is still not a safe place for many women and girls in
1243 Europe. [check number] still suffer from domestic violence and sexual harassment,
1244 the largest portion of rapes occurring in the private house by a spouse. ECOSY –
1245 Young European Socialists:
1246 - Welcome the work of MEP Lissy Groener for the continuation of the DAPHNE
1247 programme and call for increased resources and political attention.
1248 - Reiterates its demand to increase efforts to fight trafficking in women and
1249 forced prostitution.
1250 - Condemn all social or cultural practices as an excuse to incur mental of
1251 physical pain or damage to girls and women, including especially honour
1252 killings and genital mutilation.
1253
1254
1255 Health of Women and Girls in the world
1256
1257 Health is a global issue to be addressed by the European Union all over the world.
1258 Worldwide women are more vulnerable to be infected by HIV/AIDS, suffer most from
1259 malnutrition and rape as a weapon of war is increasing in civil wars, especially in
1260 sub-Saharan Africa. ECOSY – Young European Socialists:
1261 - Demand that women’s and girls’ rights and women’s and girls’ bodily safety
1262 should be a part of all peace keeping missions and development aid by the
1263 European Union and its member states.
1264 - Supports the Women’s initiative for gender justice that aims to persecute
1265 perpetrators of violence against women in war zones and advocates the role
1266 of the ICJ in protecting women’s rights in conflict situations.
1267 - Calls for increased efforts to reach the fifth millennium development goal to
1268 reduce by 75% the maternal mortality rate by better training of midwives and
34
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1269 by helping to increase the number of small hospitals as well as the equipment
1270 available to them, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
1271 - Calls for a gender sensitive approach to the sixth millennium development
1272 goal to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB by increasing efforts to
1273 provide better information on the nature of the diseases and its repercussions
1274 on women and by increasing the supply of women condoms
1275 - Calls for sexual education for both boys and girls from the youngest age.
1276
1277
35
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1277
For a strong Beijing+15 in the spirit of the Millennium Development Goals

 
1278
1279 By: SJÖ
1280 JS in PvdA
1281
1282
1283 In 1995, the declaration adopted by United Nations fourth world conference on
1284 women in Beijing established a platform for Action for Equality, Development and
1285 Peace. World leaders stated that Equality between women and men is a matter of
1286 human rights and a condition for social justice and is also a necessary and
1287 fundamental prerequisite for equality, development and peace. A transformed
1288 partnership based on equality between women and men is a condition for people-
1289 centered sustainable development. A sustained and long-term commitment is
1290 essential, so that women and men can work together for themselves, for their
1291 children and for society to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
1292
1293 ECOSY – Young European Socialists, in its previous resolutions and declarations
1294 endorsed the Beijing, the Beijing+5 and the Beijing+10 declarations. Particularly,
1295 ECOSY celebrated the efforts of the socialist and social-democratic leaders at the
1296 time of the declaration’s tenth anniversary that resulted in the withdrawal of
1297 conservative amendments against the original formulation on the right to abortion
1298 and the right of self-determination over her own body. For ECOSY – Young European
1299 Socialists, the right of a free and safe abortion is non-negotiable.
1300 - ECOSY calls on all socialist and social-democratic leaders to continue to give
1301 priority to the defense of women’s sexual and reproductive rights at the
1302 occasion of the fifteenth birthday of the declaration in 2010.
1303
1304 The anniversary of the declaration in 2010 will concur with the adoption of the new
1305 Lisbon Strategy and Bologna Process and be the last before the phasing out of the
1306 objectives of the Millennium Declaration. ECOSY is strongly convinced that the
1307 fulfillment of the millennium development goals requires a strong Beijing+15
1308 declaration, geared towards the three gender goals of the millennium declaration and
1309 including real financial commitments from the United Nations and its Member States.
1310 ECOSY – Young European Socialists:
1311 - Calls for increased efforts on the third millennium development goals to
1312 eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2015 and
1313 the inclusion of gender sensitive education strategies in all peace keeping
1314 missions and rebuilding strategies. Particularly, education should include
1315 sexual education starting from the youngest age.
1316 - Calls for increased efforts to reach the fifth millennium development goal to
1317 reduce by 75% the maternal mortality rate by better training of midwives and
1318 by helping to increase the number of small hospitals as well as the equipment
1319 available to them, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
1320 - Calls for a gender sensitive approach to the sixth millennium development
1321 goal to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB by increasing efforts to
1322 provide better information on the nature of the diseases and its repercussions
1323 on women and by increasing the supply of women condoms. ECOSY
36
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1324 condemns all governments that negate the existence of the disease in their
1325 countries or advocate alternative false solutions that often result in grave
1326 violations of women’s and girls’ human rights.
1327
1328 ECOSY – Young European Socialists stresses that this can only be reached if it is
1329 combined with efforts to ensure equal access for women to the labour market,
1330 increase the proportion of women on official decision-making bodies and the
1331 protection women against violence. Article 11 of the Beijing declaration states that
1332 grave violations of the human rights of women occur, particularly in times of armed
1333 conflict, and include murder, torture, systematic rape, forced pregnancy and forced
1334 abortion, in particular under policies of ethnic cleansing. ECOSY – Young European
1335 Socialists:
1336 - stresses the importance this article and calls for increased action against
1337 violence against women as a method of war and for the inclusion of gender
1338 strategies in all missions and development strategies of the UN and its
1339 Member States.
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
37
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1350
Resolution on Migration and Asylum Policies

 
1351
1352 By: ANIMO
1353
1354
1355 “The European Union must be maintained and developed as an area of freedom,
1356 security and justice.” (Treaty of Amsterdam 1999).
1357 However, it is clear that these words from the core treaties of the European Union
1358 are not acted upon in reality when it comes to migration and asylum. In the EU
1359 migrants have been detained in centres where they were forced to live in degrading
1360 and inhuman circumstances. Furthermore, the EU legislation has approved the
1361 Return Directive that does not guarantee the return of irregular migrants in safety
1362 and dignity, because it allows for a period of detention of up to 1, 5 years. In
1363 particular in the EU member states that are at the borders of the EU it is difficult to
1364 uphold human rights standards. For instance, on the 26th of November 2008 Human
1365 Rights Watch published a report on the treatment of Iraqi asylum seekers in Greece,
1366 which concluded that this vulnerable group was systematically arrested, locked up in
1367 dirty and overcrowded locations and secretly transferred to Turkey against their will.
1368 Unacceptable situations like these are supposed to be banned by
1369 Directive 2003/9/EC of 27 January 2003 on the reception of asylum-seekers. Finally,
1370 EU migration and asylum policy is flawed, because it does not ensure common
1371 standards and equal entry opportunities.
1372 We need to correct these flaws in EU migration and asylum policy. Therefore, we as
1373 ECOSY – Young European Socialists call for the EU to root its migration and asylum
1374 policy in the respect for the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers.
1375 Concretely, this should be done by:
1376
1377 -Amending and revising the relevant legislation in a way that increases the level of
1378 protection offered to asylum seekers, migrants and refugees. The Return Directive is
1379 a case in point.
1380 -Formalising the involvement of independent asylum experts in EU migration and
1381 asylum policy.
1382 -Supporting the member states at the external borders of the EU and monitoring
1383 these external borders, in order to ensure that human rights standards and refugee
1384 obligations are being respected. This would include the observation of FRONTEX
1385 operations.
1386 -Ensuring that asylum seekers, migrants and refugees have access to adequate
1387 housing, health care, education and the labour market whilst they are in the EU.
1388 -Preventing minors from being treated the same as other asylum seekers. Minors
1389 should not be locked up in detention centers, but deserve extra care and education.
1390 Because of their needs, ECOSY believes that they deserve a different status in the
1391 return directive.
1392
38
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1393 Solidarity between member states is necessary for a social coherent migration and
1394 asylum policy. Concretely ECOSY – Young European Socialists is convinced that a
1395 financial and practical burden sharing between member states is needed. Further
1396 more ECOSY believes that the harmonisation of migration and asylum legislation is a
1397 priority.
1398
1399 Ensuring peace, democracy, freedom and respect for human rights are goals that are
1400 at the core of the foundation of the EU. We cannot let the societal pressures that
1401 emerge from migration erode these values.
1402
1403
1404
1405
39
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1405
Make the year of Intercultural Dialogue Last!

 
1406
1407 By: ANIMO
1408 JS in PvdA
1409 MJS Belgium
1410
1411
1412 Intercultural dialogue is a vital issue for ECOSY, as confirmed in the resolutions of
1413 the ECOSY Bureau meeting, gathered in Lisbon from 7 until 9 December 2007 and
1414 the ECOSY Bureau Meeting, gathered in Madrid from 28 until 30 November 2008.
1415
1416 ECOSY Young European Socialists reaffirms its commitments of past with this
1417 resolution.
1418
1419 Europe's vast diversity of different languages, religions and cultural backgrounds are
1420 the premises for a rich cultural heritage and opportunities to learn from each other.
1421 On 18 December 2006 the European Parliament launched 2008 as the European Year
1422 of Intercultural Dialogue to enable European citizens and all those living in the
1423 European Union to deal with a more open and more complex cultural environment.
1424 The European Union also aimed towards raising awareness of European citizens of
1425 the importance of developing an active European citizenship which is open to the
1426 world, respectful of cultural diversity and based on common values in the EU. The
1427 EYID set up a number of project in the EU to promote the intercultural dialogue and
1428 it did this through 7 topics. These are: culture and the media, education/science,
1429 migration, minorities, religion, multilingualism and youth.
1430
1431 Decent work is essential for establishing the conditions of a real intercultural
1432 dialogue. Work not only is a guarantee for a decent life in the host society, but
1433 should also be a place where people from different cultures come into contact.
1434 Therefore ECOSY - Young European Socialists calls for:
1435 -The inclusion of multiculturalism in the revised Lisbon Strategy, especially in the
1436 aspect of more and better jobs. A fruitful dialogue can never come about under
1437 precarious working conditions
1438 -ECOSY renews its call for special attention to multiculturalism in the current
1439 European Year of creativity and innovation (2009) and the coming European Year of
1440 eradication of poverty (2010). The European Union needs to review its decision not
1441 to dedicate extra budgetary resources to the European Year for creativity and
1442 innovation and ensure that at least half of the European year for creativity and
1443 innovation is financed from other budgetary lines than that of education, culture and
1444 youth.
1445 -ECOSY calls for the adoption of regulations allowing for the stricter sanctioning of
1446 temporary work agencies who exploit first generation immigrant workers or provide
1447 them with low quality and overcrowded housing conditions.
1448
1449 The European policy of official multilingualism as a deliberate tool of the government
1450 is unique in the world. However, we must recognise that multilingualism can
40
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1451 sometimes cause problems. In order to make a dialogue in a multilingual society

1452 possible, ECOSY - Young European Socialists makes following demands :
1453 -The minority pact needs to be respected in all EU countries and at EU level. Minority
1454 groups in the EU and in member states have to be protected and given their rights.
1455 -Intercultural dialogue has to be practised at all levels, EU, national, regional and
1456 local. As ECOSY we believe that multilingualism is an important part of our diverse
1457 society; language is a part of someone’s culture and identity.
1458 -ECOSY supports the EU multilingualism strategy to encourage European citizens to
1459 learn two foreign languages and give them to means to do so.
1460
1461 The public debate on immigration has turned hostile in many EU countries. This
1462 debate oftentimes has become the subject of abuse by extreme right parties. With
1463 populist campaigns they use these subjects to create fear and uncertainty between
1464 the people. In many countries their support remains unwavered, while they are
1465 strengthened by the circumstances of the economic crisis. . ECOSY calls for the
1466 member parties of the PES to expose the empty rhetoric on which the extreme right
1467 is based. We should not ignore the subjects that are put on the agenda by the
1468 extreme right nor should we answer them with an equally populist message. We
1469 should be visible in the public debate and give people answers to every subject that
1470 concerns them.
1471
1472 Education and training is an important way to provide information, and can be the
1473 first introduction to intercultural dialogue. For this reason ECOSY calls for a continued
1474 attention to interculturalism through both education and life long learning programs.
1475
1476
1477
1478
1479 Next to adopting the aforementioned resolutions, ECOSY - Young European
1480 Socialists, has included Interculturalism in the 6th Deliverable of the “Change for
1481 Europe” 2009 campaign. Aware of the dangers of extreme right parties exploiting
1482 fears and insecurities in the current economic crisis, ECOSY will organise a seminar
1483 in the next mandate, dedicated to combating the extreme right and promoting
1484 Intercultural Dialogue.
1485
1486
1487
1488
1489
41
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1489
1490
ECOSY Pool of Trainers 2009 – 2011 – The Strategy

 
1491
1492 By: VSStÖ
1493 JS in PvdA
1494
1495
1496 Education to empower people is one of the core values socialist organisations are
1497 built upon. As ECOSY – Young European Socialist we are promoting this idea
1498 everyday.
1499 In the mandate from 2007-2009 our organisation already tried to give the value
1500 even a little bit more space in the organisational structures through establishing the
1501 pool of trainers.
1502 The last two years during different events the PoT was mainly focusing on two
1503 things. First of all, educating new trainers out of people nominated by the member
1504 organisations themselves and secondly training trainers in new methods and topics.
1505
1506 In a knowledge based society, such as that in which we live, education is one of the
1507 most important „resources“. Not only the traditional understanding and concepts of
1508 formal education will shape the future of our society but informal and non-formal
1509 educational processes will also take on an increasing importance.
1510 ECOSY believes that trainings are one of the best tools for the promotion of the idea
1511 of obtaining a sustainable and inclusive society. We want to enable people to
1512 empower themselves through development of skills and knowledge to actively
1513 participate in our world and make it a better one.
1514 We are not a group of young politicians doing paper work and drafting amendments
1515 but a mass of young, critical, political people who are actively trying to build a better
1516 and more socially just world for everyone.
1517
1518 As children we learn through experience but the older we get, we tend to forget what
1519 it means to not only promote an idea through a speech, but also live your principals
1520 in daily life. Through trainings, thus experiencing what, for example intercultural, or
1521 inter religious dialogue really mean for you, ECOSY can deliver a decisive role in
1522 changing our society.
1523 Because of this the embryonic PoT has to be further developed and strengthened in
1524 relation to these key points.
1525
1526
1527 • The Pool of Trainers of the mandate of 2009-20011 should continue
1528 with Training for Trainers for people nominated by the member-organisations.
1529 ECOSY should provide seminars, meetings and other occasions for new
1530 persons to get active in the field of trainings and should thereby ensure the
1531 concept of non-formal and informal education is an issue in the daily life of
1532 every member-organisation.
1533
1534 • In the upcoming mandate of 2009-2011 the discussion about the
42
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1535 concept of „Socialist and Global Education“ as a promoting tool of our ideas
1536 should be a cooperation work of different groups within ECOSY's structures
1537 such as the Pool of Trainers itself together with the different settled Networks
1538 of the Bureau.
1539
1540 • Providing the member-organisations not only with educating new
1541 trainers but also with the possibility of using the already existing expertise in
1542 that field has to be ensured by providing a regularly updated database of
1543 people with expertise. The framework of who is nominating people into this
1544 database should be agreed on the first Bureau meeting taking place after the
1545 congress.
1546
1547 • The Pool of Trainers should get active to network with other already
1548 existing Pool of Trainers from sister organisations and institutions.
1549
1550 • To ensure that the expertise is shared and further developed, ECOSY'S
1551 Pool of Trainers should educate themselves also on a theoretical level with
1552 new working methods and find a way to promote these methods within the
1553 member-organisations. Things as tool-kits and a database have to be made
1554 accessible for the member-organisations.
1555
43
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ECOSY – Young European Socialists

Resolutions and Declarations - Drafts

15 CHANGE FOR EUROPE

R2 New Agreement on social and JUSOS 6

R3 Equal Pay for Equal Work JUSOS 9

Combat the economic crisis and regulate the financial system

68 The lack of transparency in financial markets is a further aggravating factor: with

89 What should be the consequences?

New Agreement on social and employment policy for Europe

221 - Macroeconomic policies remain uncoordinated. With monetary policy

Equal Pay for Equal Work

318 ‐ A maximum share of 20 per cent or less of temporary agency workers

2010 – Bologna is over?

370 • In the Evaluation of Bologna the newly implemented three-

Young Generation – Future of European Science and research

European Energy Policy – for sustainability

On post-Kyoto climate change architecture

730 participants by providing financial stimulus to them. It is important as the

For Funding for development

799 transactions to be applied to global trading in the international monetary markets.

On the recent developments in Cyprus

Western Balkans enlargement for people of the region

EU Policy towards Eastern Neighbours and Russia

1003 What we want:

Resolution Women & Health

1168 reducing inequalities in health by bringing together under a coherent

For a strong Beijing+15 in the spirit of the Millennium Development Goals

Resolution on Migration and Asylum Policies

Make the year of Intercultural Dialogue Last!

1451 sometimes cause problems. In order to make a dialogue in a multilingual society

ECOSY Pool of Trainers 2009 – 2011 – The Strategy

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