International

The growth strategy presented today by the European Commission takes it further down the path of undermining social rights and the welfare state and is damaging to the European economy. No attempt is made to invest in the economy, in employment and innovation, according to Dennis de Jong who adds that ‘the worst of the crisis is not in the past as the Commission asserts. Unemployment is enormous, household debt and poverty are growing and self-employed people are taking blow after blow. The Commission is right to argue that the wealthier member states should now be doing more to stimulate domestic demand, but that means that governments must be given more space to invest and get rid of burdensome charges. This would restore consumer and business confidence. So this presentation is completely unbelievable.’

Cooperation of countries in North Africa and the Middle East with the Council of Europe must be aimed at strengthening the rule of law, protecting human rights and advancing democracy. Only countries willing to fulfil these obligations can become partners of Europe’s biggest treaty-based organisation, in which forty-seven European states participate. So said SP Senator Tiny Kox at a special conference in Lisbon with delegations from the parliaments of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. Kox, who is president of the European United Left Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, was one of the initiators of the conference.