SP International :: Goals

The Socialist Party Programme for the European Parliamentary elections of 2004

A summary in thirty concrete points

1. An end must be put to the transfer of national competences from the member states to Brussels. National parliaments should have more control over the application within their countries of policies determined by the European Union.
2. The European parliament must be given all the powers customary to a body of elected popular representatives. The powers of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the European Council must be limited. The European Central Bank should henceforward be placed under the control of the European parliament and the parliaments of the states which have adopted the Euro.
3. The possible future introduction of a European constitution should be the culmination of a process of grass roots co-operation and must be ratified by referenda held in all of the countries involved.
4. Spending on salaries and travel expenses for Members of the European Parliament must be substantially reduced, for example by putting a stop to the practice of dividing business between Brussels and Strasbourg.
5. The European Arrest Warrant should be reviewed and member states no longer forced to send their citizens to countries with a less rigorous system of justice.
6. EU monetary policy should be directed less at monetary stability and more at social stability.
7. More attention should be given to the rights of and provision for people living in areas close to borders between member states, including through the introduction of clear rules governing cross-border social and employment rights.
8. All workers should be employed under conditions prevailing in the country in which they are employed. Workers in European companies should have the right to establish a European Works’ Council.
9. Every EU citizen should have the right to a retirement pension sufficient to guarantee a decent existence. Speculative investment by pension funds should be stopped.
10. Degrees and diplomas awarded within the different member states should be recognised throughout the EU and the rights which accompany such recognition guaranteed.
11. Properly trained and qualified workers should enjoy legal protection against the recruitment of underpaid and inadequately qualified workers. Unemployed young people under the age of 23 should be offered six months of education or employment.
12. The formation of monopolies by major software and computer firms in the European Union should be stopped.
13. Investment of EU funds should be limited to the poorest regions and priority given to public services, environmental protection, secure livelihoods, employment, and emergency aid in the face of natural disasters.
14. The European Union should strive for the rapid introduction of a tax on capital transactions (Tobin Tax), and the abolition of secret bank accounts and tax havens.
15. Liberalisation and privatisation of essential services, public transport, health care facilities and social security offices must be reversed. Nationalised industries should no longer be forced to compete in the market.
16. Cultural differences within the European Union should be fully respected. European languages and recognised minority languages, such as Friesian must be given every possible protection.
17. State-owned educational institutions must no longer be made available to private investors and sponsors.
18. The European Union must stop promoting “market-working” in health care. The power of pharmaceutical companies should be curtailed.
19. National authorities should enjoy the power to protect their domestic market from imports of dangerous and polluting products and packaging from other EU member states.
20. Within the EU an end should be put to the revival of nuclear power in the shortest time feasible. The Union should stop encouraging member states to dispose of radioactive waste underground. Member states should be allowed to erect barriers against the import of energy from dirty or dangerous sources.
21. Bureaucratic and vulnerable to fraud, the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union should be reconstructed to prioritise the development of sustainable and affordable alternatives and eco-friendly production systems.
22. The natural balance in the North Sea and other European seas must be restored, including by means of limiting fish catches.
23. Commercial production and import of food based on genetically modified organisms should be forbidden for as long as the possible negative consequences of such products for public health, the environment and ecosystems are imperfectly understood.
24. European standards for animal welfare and laws against the ill-treatment of animals should be introduced. The use of animals for testing cosmetics and the production of and trade in fur should be forbidden. The European Union should no longer forbid member states from protecting animals through preventative inoculation.
25. The tax privileges enjoyed by airlines should be brought to an end and a European tax on the use of kerosene en superfluous aircraft capacity introduced.
26. The hugely wasteful plans to build more motorways and airports as part of the Trans-European Networks must be shelved and small-scale cross-border bus, rail and cycle transport improved.
27. The EU should provide incentives for the receipt of refugees within their own regions and guarantee a just and humane admissions policy for people seeking asylum as a result of persecution in their own countries on the basis of their beliefs, political opinions, race or sexual orientation.
28. The application of terror as a political instrument must be sternly dealt with under any and all circumstances. The European Union should be a tenacious advocate of the prevention, management and solution, without violence, of conflicts. The EU should contribute more to finding a solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
29. The right of developing countries to protect their economies against the violence of the free market must be fully recognised and upheld. Dumping of European goods in poor countries must be halted.
30. The militarisation of the European Union must be ended. The member states of the European Union should take the decision not to develop any more weapons of mass destruction or allow such weapons to be stationed within their territory, at the same time exercising great care in relation to the export of weapons of any kind.

• Index SP Goals