The PES office will be closed until 18th August and as a result no new blogs will be published until that date. The issues facing Europe, however, do not go on vacation. The debate must go on. Yourspace, as always, remains your space and you may comment on blog posts.

With European elections next June, campaigning will be the hot topic when we return in mid-August. We already have posts on expat campaigning and the use of social-networking websites and look forward to many more. `How do we turn our political ideas and visions into great campaigns?' Empowered with a common manifesto, how best can the PES communicate this to European voters in order to create a New Social Europe?

We look forward to hearing your ideas on this topic and many others. In the meantime hear the assessment of party leaders José Sócrates, Caroline Gennez, François Hollande, Mircea Geoana and Helle Thorning-Schmidt on our manifesto consultation.

And let us know if there is a hot topic you would like us to organize a debate on...

With the freedom of movement that citizens enjoy within the European Union there are thousands of people living, working or studying in other European countries. Having many activists living as expatriates in member states other than their own, how can the PES maximize the expatriate vote in the upcoming European elections? The Portuguese PS and Romanian PSD are working to integrate their members abroad into local party sections in their countries of residence, already parties such as the French PS actively welcome sister party members into their organization and campaign at street level. In some cases it is about being in touch with, and being welcomed by, the local party in your country of residence. In other cases members from different parties living in the same city might set up a PES activist group. In the coming months the PES will work to put our member parties in touch with other party members in their country. At a recent meeting set up to discuss this work, party representatives' enthusiasm was clear ...

Check out some suggestions on best practices in gaining the support and participation of expat activists on Yourspace.

The PES manifesto consultation for the 2009 elections has been a resounding success with over 300,000 visitors to the Yourspace website, 600 posts and 60 written contributions. The same can be said of the first PES activists Forum which marked the end of this process. Over 300 grassroots PES activists from across Europe gathered during  a warm and sunny Vienna weekend to debate and discuss a wide range of important issues including online campaigning, European democracy and diversity, Europe in the world, New Social Europe and how best to "Save our Planet."

The debate goes on! We hope to continue the remarkable success of the Forum with more online discussion. Check out the video from the Vienna Forum posted on Yourspace and stay tuned in the coming days for many more, with interviewees discussing an array of topics including migration, democracy, energy policy, grassroots campaigning and development.

Post your views on the interviewees' suggestions and don't hesitate to make your own suggestions on how to make a better EU by having your say on Yourspace.

The PES manifesto consultation has ended - after over 300,000 visits to Yourspace and more than 600 contributions posted! But our dialogue on `Yourspace' goes on! We will continue to debate the hot issues that will shape the European elections - migration, climate change, rising food and energy prices, jobs, equality, the EU treaty - as well as getting ready for the elections: presenting PES candidates from different countries, discussing campaign activities, hearing about your events, exposing opposition parties and candidates, drawing the dividing lines between the PES and the other European parties, and keeping you informed about the preparation of the PES manifesto.

We will kick off the post-consultation dialogue with a debate on migration - kicked off by Portuguese socialist and former European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino - as well as reports from the PES activists forum in Vienna on July 4-5 (the final event of the manifesto consultation) and a focus on mobilizing the votes of the millions of EU citizens living and working in other EU countries.

http://manifesto2009.pes.org/ - it's still your space...

What is your opinion regarding gender equality in European politics? Should women have more prominence on the top level positions of EU institutions? This is the theme of the first article of the BLOGFEST on Yourspace. The BLOGFEST will run for the next two weeks, until the 6 July. Several bloggers will post and comment and you can also participate by giving your ideas. Drop by Yourspace and check it yourself!

More women in European politics

hope that this campaign will still be relevant - in spite the depressing outcome of the referendum in Ireland (of which I will speak no more for now!). Danish Member of the European Parliament, Christel Schaldemose, has started...

Read the full post here

Joël Cordier is the blogger of the week on Yourspace! Joël is a member of the Parti Socialiste in Namur, Belgium, and of Artisans de l'Europe, an initiative aimed at discussing the manifesto2009. Throughout the next days he intends to cover issues like the consequences of the Irish "No" or cooperation and development, just to mention a few.

You can read his posts here.

Last week was very rich in posts regarding European democracy & diversity.

Démocratie participative en Europe

Au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale l'Europe a érigé à travers la CECA (Communauté Européenne du Charbon et de l'Acier) d'abord, la CEE (Communauté économique européenne) et l'EURATOM (Communauté européenne de l'énergie atomique) ensuite...

Read the full post here

Ireland Decides

Well the polls have closed and the ballot boxes are now safely stored away until they are opened at 09h00 (10h00 CET) on Friday morning. As I predicted, a lot of the discussion in the media this evening has been on how many people turned out to vote. If you remember I said that the general view is that a turnout below 40% would suggest a NO vote, while...

Read the full post here

Next week starts the Yourspace BLOGFEST. From the 23 of June to 6 of July several bloggers will post articles and leave their comments on the manifesto2009. We expect two weeks of intense blog activity! Join us!

Thursday Irish voters have their say on the Lisbon Treaty. Desmond O'Toole, Labour Party member highly involved on the YES campaign, is sharing his views on Yourspace.

Desmond is delivering daily reports from Ireland on both sides of the campaign.

Check them here:

Desmond O'Toole - Yourspace blogger of the week

We present you Richard Falbr, Czech MEP, who is sharing his ideas for the manifesto on European elections 2009 on Yourspace!

Here are some of Richard's articles:

The Golden sixties

The golden sixties, era when the Unions had the greatest influence and success, will probably never come back. Those were the days when the Unions in democratic states helped to increase the standards of living of the workers, and even diminished the difference between the white and the blue collar workers.

Read the full post here

Don't be afraid of the Czechs

The Czechs welcome the declaration of president Sarkozy. The opening of the market however does not mean that the Czechs will rush to France. We are very conservative and we do not move even from regions where the unemployment rates are high to regions where there is lack of work force.

Read the full post here

This week you can meet Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women, on Yourspace! She will be commenting on selected posts from Yourspace users. Here are some of the postcards from the PES Women President:

Women and men are equal - also when it's pay day

Thanks to PES activist Martina Preuss for her interesting post about Equal Pay Day in Germany. I am very glad to know that German colleagues also have a day of action for equal pay.

The Treaty of Rome from 1957 clearly states equal pay for equal work. 50 years later we still have the problem: there is 15 percent difference in the wages of European women and men. It is a very huge gap; it means that women have to work 54 days extra to earn the same wage as a male colleague.

Read the full post here

Gender equality is a core issue for Europe's socialists

I completely agree with PES activist Natalia Reyes when she writes that gender equality should be one of the top priorities of the PES manifesto - as it is a priority for the Spanish government. Having Zapatero and PSOE in government in Spain has demonstrated that when women vote for a socialist party their lives really improve. In many ways we are experiencing the New Social Europe in Spain: Equal pay, childcare and attention to violence against women.

Read the full post here

Read all postcards from Zita Gurmai here

Today the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions hosts a conference on 'Save our Planet' in Turin, Italy. Leading up to the event Yourspace has invited local and regional politicians to give their view on what the PES manifesto should say about the environment:

Green cities: Keep public transport public

Sometimes it takes old technologies to solve the problems of modern life! This is the case in the Greater Manchester Region, United Kingdom, where good old-fashioned rail helped the regions out of its problems with traffic congestion and pollution.

Dave Quayle from Labour is a member of the Trafford Borough Council for the last 17 years and Member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions. He is a strong supporter of the `Metrolink' project and helped reintroduce trams in his region...

Read the full article here

Green cities: Malmö tackles globalization the green way

When speaking to Ilmar Reepalu, Mayor of Malmö, Sweden, and member of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions, you realize that mentality is really the key to change when it comes to combating climate change. Since the mid-nineties Reepalu has been working to change Malmö from an industrial town to a modern, green capital of the region. And with great success - Malmö has received numerous prizes for its green projects, most recently the prestigious `LivCom' award in London.

Read the full article here

Find all articles about Europe's green cities here

This week a group of Spanish PES activists are blogging on Yourspace. They're sharing their ideas for the PES manifesto - and some of these are inspired by Zapatero and the Spanish socialist government. Take a look:

The colour of politics

After an election, the democratic process goes on with the set up of a government, which then defines a project for the future, and more concretely appoints its ministers. If the present Spanish government can be called `pink' because it has 9 women and 8 men, as Berlusconi recently pointed out (see The Times and The Independent), then the rest of EU governments could be called `blue'. In this respect, there are no differences between the developed countries of the Western World and developing countries, whatever their ideologies and history. For instance, the presence European Commission has only 9 women out of the 27 commissioners. The colour `blue' therefore seems to be a common trait that no-one should boast about.

Read the full post here

The importance of being Earnest

In the last years, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his government have been recognized for the social improvements introduced in Spain. Improvements that have turned this Mediterranean country into one of the most advanced places in the world. And I am talking, particularly, about the modification of the marriage laws that extend the right to get married to anyone independently of his or her sex since 2005. With this, there is no "gay marriage" in Spain. There is only one kind of marriage for everyone - no separate regulations.

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Find all posts from the Spanish PES activists here or visit their website for Spanish translations.

Enjoy Labour Day tomorrow!

The Yourspace editiorial team has asked Neil Kinnock, former leader of Labour UK, and Lionel Jospin, former Prime Minister of France, about priorities for the PES manifesto for the 2009 elections. Watch the video interviews below and find out more about their ideas:

Last week Martina Preuss from Göttingen, Germany, blogged on Yourspace. She has submitted three really interesting posts, about three very different topics:

Equal Pay Day - women have less in their pockets

According to Eurostat a woman in Europe earns, in average, 15 percent less than her male colleague. With 22 percent difference Germany takes a sad lead when it comes to pay inequality - on the management level it is even worse (33 percent). Only a few countries have taken action against this inequity.

Read the full post here

Europe - the lady has visions

Many visions have been given to her: international collaboration in times of mistrust, the common hymn, the architecture. With the latter I'm not only referring to the buildings in Strasburg and Brussels, but also the intellectual architecture in Rome, Schengen, Den Haag, Maastrict or Dublin. My compliments for the past.

Read the full post here

Green IT and the climate

Climate neutrality, or, in scientific terms 'CO2 neutrality', describes processes by which the global CO2 balance remains constant. In my opinion this CO2 balance no longer exists - we need to bring back this balance before we can actually maintain it. In a time of increased environmental awareness, this worthy goal can nevertheless produce unusual ideas.

Read the full post here

But there are even more Germans on Yourspace. Last week Jusos, the German young social democrats, wrote about disarmament:

Vote for disarmament!

Slowly but steadily the European Union has been finding its role in the world by shaping a common EU foreign policy. More and more tools have been developed and policies defined. However, Brussels is running the risk of loosing sight of one of its main origin: control of arms!

Read the full post here

Ania Skrzypek is Secretary General of Young European Socialists - or ECOSY in short - and this week she's be blogging on Yourspace. Find some of her posts below:

Giving Europeans a good reason to go and vote

Thinking about the next post of the blog - I was actually trying to remind myself what is that people enjoy reading. Coming from the political school of manifesto: `others want to see true intentions that inspired you at the first place, to be also inspired', I decided to use one of my very peculiar interests while traveling;... women magazines. From cover to cover - scanning all the pictures, trying to get empathy for the authors of `letters to editor', looking at some clothes that are not only strange but absolutely unaffordable for a regular employee... But above all the most exciting and the most interesting is what the knowledge these colorful pages give; the portrait of a woman of today. The last time I did that reading I discovered something absolutely disturbing; women of my own age (around 30) are the group with the highest risk of the heart attacks. Even more terrible, most of us had already some mini-version ones without noticing that even!

Read the full post here

Young European Socialists and new social jobs

Not a long time ago, by November 2007, ECOSY celebrated its 15 years anniversary. For that occasion we asked our members why they joined the movement. Among many answers the leading one was undoubtedly: because I wanted to make a difference, because I wanted to change... Naïve? I would not say so - I'd rather claim `refreshing to remember', inspiring! Now "New" usually stands for something that is different from everything we know, that can give a potential hope - which is why the "New Social Europe" seem to be the hope to re-boost the discussion on what is the absolutely unique project of Socialists and Social Democrats for Europe.

Read the full post here

Find all 'blogger of the week' posts here.

For francophone European Tribune users there is an interesting post on the Romanian Dacia workers' strike on Yourspace:

Manifestement, la Logan n'est pas la Ford T !

La grève décidée par les salariés roumains des usines Dacia est révélatrice d'une Europe sociale encore à consolider. Les salaires, les conditions de travail sont les variables d'ajustement de la nouvelle division internationale de l'industrie de main d'oeuvre, y compris au sein même des Etats de l'Union. L'emploi vient remercier ceux, méritants, qui sont prêts à travailler beaucoup pour gagner peu. Les salariés de Dacia entendent obtenir une augmentation substantielle de leur salaire. Ils appuient leur revendication sur une pénurie de main d'oeuvre qui, en Roumanie, commence à frapper la filière automobile.

Read the full post here

There's been a lot of activity on Yourspace during the last weeks. Next to the nuclear power debate (which has also been going on here) we have had three special guests blogging: Victor Negrescu from Romania, Yohann Abiven from France and this week Hanna Isbom from Finland.  Here are a few of their posts:

Hanna Isbom: More courage in equality policy

Last week Finnish Minister of Labour introduced a motion that parental leave should be divided in three: one part for mother, one part for father and one part to share however the family wants to. In Iceland they have already implemented this model. I have been demanding it to be implemented in Finland as well and therefore I've been forced to answer following questions. Aren't parents capable to decide what's best for their child and family? Is it really necessary that society gets involved in family life by telling parents how to share the parenthood? I think it is.

Read the full post here

Yohann Abiven: The single market needs a shield

The hopes for a better European future are stalling. In that context, what are the urgent matters that need dealing with?

First and foremost, the European Union can measure its legitimacy by its usefulness. In order for Eurosceptics, starting with the French, to think of Europe as indispensable, Europe must become indispensable once again.

Read the full post here

Victor Negrescu: Bureaucratic populism affects left-wing ideas

Yesterday I participated in a conference on populism. The participants, mostly from Germany and Romania talked about the definitions of populism and the dangers of populism in the new world context. The speakers talked also about the neoliberalism populism and the danger of wanting to beat populism through populism.

Nevertheless, I noticed that all seemed to ignore an important issue - at least for me. It refers to the transformation of social claims into image-like demagogical issues. I'm talking here about the image that the public opinion tends to have on several social issues like social protection, public service, etc. Because people are more and more disappointed by politics they tend to look at the parties and the politicians that talk about this social issues as populists. For instance we tend to see recently in the media phrases like: "the trade union demands AGAIN a new raise even if the economical situation is bad", "the socialist party wants to rise up the amount of the retreats even know that the economy can't support it" or "environmental projects cost too much".  

Read the full post here

Find all our bloggers of the week here

Right now there's a debate on nuclear power on Yourspace. Access the debate via the tag 'nuclear energy'

Here are a couple of standpoints:

More about "Revenge of Gaia"

Nuclear power is not 100 percent safe but which energy is? Coalmines? Gas? Forget it: To many deaths. And oil is the poison, our lethal addiction. I remember Chernobyl but, compared to a French reactor, Chernobyl 3 was a poor piece of junk. Risk zero doesn't exist.

Do we really have a choice? For the generation to come (25 years), nuclear power is the only possible choice unless we want to be in a new dark age (back to middle ages). Do you want this regression? Again, do we have a choice? We should have changed and adapted 25 years ago when the oil prices quadrupled. We didn't. Europe needs power - Europe needs electricity to avoid wars and to keep civilized.

Read the full post here

Nuclear energy is not the answer!

We all have to accept that uranium is a fossile energy resource, too. When we keep using it in the amount of today, the world´s reservoir of it will end in about 50 to 60 years, just like coal, gas, oil (source: German governmental department of economy).

Everybody can imagine how each new nuclear energy plant fastens these developments. The hunger for uranium will increase, it´s reservoir will empty faster. So we should try to find alternatives to it as fast as possible instead of wasting money on this dying sort of energy. Every cent that is used to support nuclear technology is an investment in the past, not in the future.

Read the full post here

Promoted by Migeru

Last week Yourspace welcomed another blogger: Jon Worth from the UK.

Two seats for the European Parliament is unsustainable

What is the price of symbolism, the historic reconciliation of France and Germany in the post-World War II Europe? Strasbourg, one of the seats of the European Parliament, is the very embodiment of the values of peace and reconciliation.

Read the full post here

Can we accept European state-run enterprises?

Free trade between Member States is one of the principles on which the European Union is founded. I profit from this personally, being able to sell website services in the UK, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. It's good that a company from Ynys-ddu can sell its widgets in Ystad without hindrance.

Yet what about services traditionally provided by the state such as refuse collection, water and energy services?

Read the full post here

2009 - Europe's e-election?

Rather than political ideology as such, I would like to start my posts as 'blogger of the week' here at Yourspace with some reflections about campaign tactics ahead of the 2009 European elections, for it strikes me that this election offers more prospect for interesting uses of the internet than any other election fought anywhere in Europe to date.

Read the full post here

This week's blogger is Victor Negrescu from Romania! Find all posts from our weekly bloggers here.

This week you can meet and debate with Eric Sundström, editor in chief at Aktuellt i Politiken, the newspaper of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. He is Yourspace's first 'blogger of the week'!

Eric Sundström: the New Social Europe is also Green

It's my third day as your guest blogger, and today I would like to present some specific policy proposals. And I will start with a political issue very close to my heart: the environment.

None of my parents (Bo and Gunnel) were members of a political party when I grew up. However, my dad Bo was very interested in politics in general, and environmental issues in particular. He started working with green issues already in the early 1960s, when Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" served as one of the first alarm bells.

Read the full post here

Eric Sundström: having a beer at a red think tank in Brussels?

As your guest blogger this week, I have decided to bring up serious questions, but I also want to bring personal stories into it. I hope this will facilitate things and make the posts more interesting when you follow my train of thoughts. So here goes again:

In 2002-2003 I had one of the best experiences of my life. I was working as a "research fellow" at a Democratic think tank in Washington DC. The think tank can be traced back to Bill Clinton's renewal of the Democratic party, but also his great interest in policy. Both Clintons are real policy wonks, if you didn't know.

Read the full post here

Eric Sundström: democratize and politicize!

As your specially invited blogger this week, I must first say that I am very honored. And since I try to keep two blogs as it is (in English here and in Swedish here), I have learnt that the best blog posts are not too long. But since I have your attention now, we must be serious to start with.

In the autumn of 1993, I attended my first seminar at university level. I had registered for a course in economic history at Stockholm University, a decision I had started to regret right before the course started. The summer of 1993 had been great. I was in love with music (rock'n'roll, that is), literature (Jack Kerouac, that summer) and politics (social democracy, of course. But with a more radical socialist twist, in those days).

Read the full post here

Find all blogger of the week posts here

PS - Next week will feature a blogger as well. Who it will be stays a secret until then, we'll post an announcement Monday :-)

Here's second round of reports from my colleague who is traveling together with PES president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the States:

The end of the conservative era in America?

PES president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is in New York and shares his impressions from SuperTuesday - right after the close of polls yesterday:

Read the full post here

Europe should listen to the American healthcare debate

It's tempting to think we Europeans have nothing to learn from the American debate about healthcare - after all, we have had more-or-less universal healthcare for years. But we should be smarter than that; it's more than the US catching up with us.

Read the full post here

It's still the economy stupid!

Almost four in ten Americans say the economy and jobs is the number one issue in the presidential campaign - up ten per cent in the last three weeks and now twice as many as cite Iraq as the top issue.

Read the full post here here