The European People's Party (EPP)

 

Priorities 2010-2014:

• The European Union needs to update, reassert and modernise its values: freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, along with respect for human rights, including those of minority groups.
• The European Union needs a firm and deeply rooted transatlantic relationship in a context of mutual respect and understanding.
• The European Union requires the development and deepening of the Neighbourhood Policy.
• Rushing towards further enlargement without adequate consolidation and preparation could damage the cohesion of the Union and affect its capacity for action and solidarity. We must ensure that applicant countries share the vision of Europe and the goals we want to pursue.
• The Union cannot remain silent and inactive when European enterprises are facing increasing financial difficulties, households worry about their purchasing power, workers about their employment, pensioners about their retirement and savers about their deposits.
• EPP Group believes that the European Union’s financing model is exhausted and should therefore be substantially reformed. The Europe of 27 still has the budget of the small economic community of the 1980s. Its expenditure focuses far too much on traditional policies, to the detriment of more innovative measures.
• Terrorist organizations, terrorism, represent the main threat to our coexistence and our values. Anti-terrorism falls under the competence of the Member States. There is, however, a political role for the European Union, which must create an overall security strategy.
• The EPP Group supports the establishment of diversified energy sources, promoting higher energy efficiency in all activity sectors, the completion of the internal energy market and the development of a coherent foreign energy policy.
• European agriculture must develop a dual strategic objective: to feed Europeans independently and healthily.
• One of our strategic priorities must be a common European approach to immigration. In order to achieve public support for legal migration, Europe must prove that it can be effective in combating illegal immigration.
• In order to respond to tomorrow’s societal challenges, such as demographic change, migration, globalisation, environmental and climate challenges, and in the light of the new EU territorial cohesion objective, social and cohesion policy will have to be revised in 2013. The greatest social injustice is high unemployment.

Based on Ten priorities for the EPP Group 2009-2014. Putting people at the heart of Europe: http://stream.epp-ed.eu/Activities/docs/year2009/2009-2014group-priorities-en1.pdf
More www.eppgroup.eu




Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament

 

Priorities for 2010:

• More effective European economic coordination, especially to improve the EU's ability to cope with crises.
• Far-reaching reform to tackle problems in the size, structure, business models, fiscal and regulatory arbitrage and remuneration patterns of financial sector institutions.
• A Financial Transfer Tax, to ensure that the biggest share of the costs of the global recession fall on the financial institutions which caused it, not on ordinary citizens and taxpayers.
• Socialists and Democrats call for ambitious proposals to make this more social Europe a reality, including a Directive to guarantee basic labour rights for all workers, a Directive on Social Services to ensure high quality care; and revision of the notorious Posting of Workers Directive to protect employment rights and working conditions.
• Comprehensive proposals to achieve a decisive shift towards a low carbon and resource efficient economy.
• A new, tough biodiversity strategy to protect natural habitats and ecosystems.
• Ambitious reforms to put sustainability and fairness at the heart of the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy.
• Comprehensive action for rapid progress on a world-beating digital agenda.
• Action to prepare for future health pandemics - based on the precautionary principle, good science and cost-effectiveness.
• Socialists and Democrats have set out a radical alternative legislative agenda on gender equality, civil liberties, lifelong learning, sport, cultural diversity, data protection, the fight against cross-border crime and measures to strengthen EU democracy.
• A sweeping revision of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework to equip the EU to react promptly to new challenges.
• Measures to improve EU representation in the G20 and other world organisations, advance enlargement and use trade and development policy to promote Decent Work worldwide and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Based on Top Priorities for 2010: 12 Key Demands: http://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/gpes/media3/documents/3395_EN_12_key_demands_en_1004201.pdf
More: www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu





The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)

 

Priorities for 2009-2014:

• ALDE supports a strong competition policy that creates the appropriate environment to guarantee healthy competition from being undermined by anticompetitive practices, abuses of dominant position and state aid that contribute to distorting competition. It is ultimately EU citizens who benefit from fair and open competition as it leads to lower prices, better quality goods and services, and encourages innovation.
• The impact of the crisis on the labour market and the related social consequences will significantly increase the need for a greater social Europe, including measures to effectively tackle poverty, social exclusion and discrimination. The European Commission has a vital role to play by promoting the coordination of Member States’ activities and ensuring the full implementation of existing legislation and tools.
• The development of coherent European foreign policy is essential if the Union is to play a role in the world. The Union must focus on its traditional strengths of conflict prevention and crisis management and put a very strong and special emphasis on human rights and promotion of democracy. The Union must arm itself with an efficient and community based European External Action Service (EEAS). Foreign policy must always promote and defend European values.
• The single market is the greatest achievement of the European Union, but is not yet complete. It is more important than ever to reconcile the market with the social dimension and to establish a true European social market economy. The crisis has also exposed weaknesses in the financial market sector and in order to remedy these shortfalls, a single financial supervisor for micro- and macro-prudential supervision of large cross-border financial institutions must be established.
• The ALDE believes that we need a strong and competitive Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a vital element for successful development of the EU.
• Health and consumer policy should be at the core of the internal market. The new Treaty considerably strengthens the EU's powers in the field of public health, and the new Commission should therefore seize the opportunity to formulate a more ambitious and coherent health policy benefitting all citizens.
• The ALDE group wants globalisation with a human face. Trade tools should be used to promote sustainable economic development and reduce poverty. The EP will be involved in the negotiating mandates and must be regularly informed on the progress of negotiations (at an early stage and with a stronger voice).
• Enlargement has been one of the most successful policies of the Union and it will remain an essential policy for the Union through the coming years. However, forthcoming enlargements are likely to be more controversial and scrutinised than previous ones.
• If the European Union wants to stay competitive vis a vis its main competitors, it should raise its level of research and development (R&D) as quickly as possible. Furthermore, R&D can accelerate the EU`s transition to an eco-efficient economy using substantially fewer fossil fuels.
• The EU Regional policy will have to face a number of major challenges in the near future, which will need to be taken into account in the new architecture of structural funds from 2014 onwards.

Based on Strategic Programme 2009-2014:
http://www.alde.eu/fileadmin/webdocs/strategic_priorities/100414-FINAL_STRATEGIC_PROGRAMME_EN.pdf
More: www.alde.eu





The Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament
(The Greens/EFA)

• The EU has to act in order to negotiate an ambitious, aggressive and binding international agreement to combat climate change after 2012. The EU must make deep cuts in its emissions in line with the latest scientific evidence, i.e. by at least 40% by 2020 and 95% by 2050. The EU’s current non-binding target of at least 20% savings in energy by 2020 must be made binding with a rapid energy saving programme in the building sector.
• A guaranteed and sufficient source of funding must be made available for climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries.
• A true commitment to an energy revolution would lead to the creation of millions of jobs in the renewable energy and related sectors. Greens believe that nuclear power is not a solution for climate change. The EU should not promote biofuels.
• We advocate greater and better sustainable investment into rail infrastructure over road infrastructure. We want VAT to be charged on cross-border EU flights and tax to be levied on aviation kerosene.
• Greens want an increased role for the European Central Bank in supervision. We want also an EU supervisory structure to cover all financial services sectors to preserve financial stability, to collect and analyse relevant data and to act rapidly in crisis situations that affect the EU. Greens have long called for the introduction of a financial transaction tax to fight against financial speculation.
• Greens want Genetically Modified Organism-free agriculture. Strict rules to prevent contamination are necessary. Consumers have the right to know when they are consuming GM products even indirectly. Local and regional marketing of quality food needs more support from the EU. We are also working on new legislation favouring short-distance transport of food for consumption.
• The objectives of farm subsidies must change. They must support sustainable practices that respect environmental and animal welfare criteria, conserve the rural environment and increase rural employment.
• We must drastically reduce both the size of fishing fleets and the intensity of fishing.
• Export subsidies must be eliminated. Developing countries must be allowed to protect their markets from being flooded by cheap, subsidised imports that endanger the survival of local farming communities.
• Greens want a social clause in the Treaties which states that fundamental rights always have priority over market rights. This should recognize the priority of social policy over economic policy.
• Free movement of workers should be available to all EU citizens. Greens demand to remove all restrictions to the free movement of workers from new Member States. Greens also demand minimum rights for all workers to stop social dumping. 
• Greens want a complete overhaul of the EU’s trade strategy, so that it actively contributes to the goal of combating climate change. Unnecessary trade must be discouraged and remaining trade “qualified” in order to support the sustainable production of imports according to EU or global social and ecological standards.
• Greens want to ensure that Member States allow EU scrutiny of their own human rights and practices. A human rights clause must be systematically included in all agreements signed with third world countries. This clause should be accompanied by clear implementation mechanisms. 
• We want clear limits on military-based foreign policy, with full emphasis on human rights protection and protection of people rather than states. Reduce Member State military capability and expenditure and transfer some capacities to the EU with clear peacekeeping and peacebuilding mandates. We want extension of the EU neighbourhood policy, which would strengthen the prosperity, stability and security of EU border countries.
• We want complete EU nuclear disarmament by 2020. In addition, we want the US to withdraw its weapons and cease deployment of its antiballistic missile system on EU territory. 
• Greens want to ensure that legal migrants who have resided in the EU for 5 years have the same rights as long-term EU residents. This includes the right to vote.  They want to ensure that migrants are not exploited by employers in their field of work and receive the same protection as EU residents.
• Greens will continue to monitor all EU policy making processes and press for coherence regarding migration and EU external policies, and if possible synergise migration and development.
• Greens will continue highlighting the humanitarian and compassionate aspect of migration and asylum, and to safeguard the rights of both migrants and refugees, such as the right to be close to family.
• Greens want full implementation of the principle of equal pay for men and women and of equal treatment between women and men, access to employment, vocational training, and promotion and working conditions.
• Community legislation should be revised, protecting the roles of mothers and fathers, not least through measures to encourage equal shouldering of family responsibilities.
• We want the Commission to identify the correct legal basis for combating all forms of violence against women in the EU Treaty and establish an EU wide policy to combat trafficking in human beings and on the related topics of immigration and asylum, specifically on a right to asylum on the ground of gender-based repression and persecution.

Based on The Greens’ Book Policy papers of the Greens in the European Parliament:
http://greens-efa-service.org/greensbook/data/document.pdf

More: www.greens-efa.org





European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)

 

Principles:

• Free enterprise, free and fair trade and competition, minimal regulation, lower taxation, and small government as the ultimate catalysts for individual freedom and personal and national prosperity.
• Freedom of the individual, more personal responsibility and greater democratic accountability.
• Sustainable, clean energy supply with an emphasis on energy security.
• The importance of the family as the bedrock of society.
• The sovereign integrity of the nation state, opposition to EU federalism and a renewed respect for true subsidiarity.
• The overriding value of the transatlantic security relationship in a revitalised NATO, and support for young democracies across Europe.
• Effectively controlled immigration and an end to abuse of asylum procedures.
• Efficient and modern public services and sensitivity to the needs of both rural and urban communities.
• An end to waste and excessive bureaucracy and a commitment to greater transparency and probity in EU institutions and use of EU funds.
• Respect and equitable treatment for all EU countries, new and old, large and small.

Based on Guide to the ECR Group in the European Parliament: http://www.ecrgroup.eu/download/publications/guide-to-the-ecr-group-in-the-ep2.pdf
More: www.ecrgroup.eu




Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

• The fight for quality jobs, social rights and training is one of the GUE/NGL’s main priorities. The EU’s economic and monetary orientation need to be radically changed. Those investments which create quality jobs must be encouraged, and those which destroy them penalised. We will continue the struggle against a jobs strategy which consists of increasing job market flexibility and penalising the unemployed.
• We work for equal opportunities and access to employment and careers, education and professional training; the elimination of gender pay discrimination and revaluation of wages in sectors dominated by women; the conciliation of professional and family life and development of care services for children and dependent persons; zero tolerance for violence against women; reproductive rights. 
• The GUE/NGL opposes the neoliberal orientation of EU trade policy that focuses on the acquisition of market access for corporations, instead of building fair trade rules guaranteeing the well being of all citizens. Our alternative vision of international trade is one of increased solidarity, democracy, cooperation and responsibility. We propose to strengthen economic relations between the European Union and Southern countries.
• The GUE/NGL Group is working for a Europe which prioritises ecological issues in the interests of citizens and the environment in which they live. Economic development must be sustainable and have the smallest impact possible on the environment. The polluter must pay for the damage caused. The people have a right to live in a healthy and pleasant environment.
• We continue to promote renewable energies. We emphasise the role of research into energy efficient vehicles and investment in clean and ecological public transport systems. The development of renewable energy will go some way towards addressing the fossil fuel crisis and can lead to environmental improvements. It can also bring economic benefits through developing new technologies and creating new jobs.
• It is essential to revitalise the rail system in order to offer an alternative to transporting everything by road. We need a transport policy that is favourable to railway workers and users, that is based on the development of public services and on European and international cooperation and that focuses on quality transport that is accessible to as many people as possible whilst respecting the environment and creating jobs.
• The GUE/NGL Group has tried to reconcile the protection of fishing resources with preserving the interests of fishermen.
• Foreign policy should be based on peace and cooperation. We are strongly opposed to war and the creation of European intervention forces intended for that purpose. Europe has no need for rearmament, it must contribute to disarmament. Europe does not need to increase its expenditure on weapons; it must reserve its budget resources for the resolution of economic and social problems.
• Europe needs a security policy based first and foremost on the prevention of crises and the elimination of causes of conflicts. Such is the mission which must be incumbent upon European policies in the domains of development, trade, the economy, agriculture, finances and culture.

Based on: www.guengl.eu




Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD)

• Committed to the principles of democracy, freedom and co-operation among Nation States, the Group favours an open, transparent, democratic and accountable co-operation among sovereign European States and rejects the bureaucratisation of Europe and the creation of a single centralised European superstate.
• The Group opposes further European integration (treaties and policies) that would increase the present democratic deficit and the centralist political structure of the EU. The Group thinks that any new treaties or any modification of existing treaties are to be submitted to the peoples’ vote through free and fair national referenda in the Member States. The Group believes that the legitimacy of any power comes from the will of its peoples and their right to be free and democratically ruled.
• Peoples and Nations of Europe have the right to protect their borders and strengthen their own historical, traditional, religious and cultural values. The Group rejects xenophobia, anti-Semitism and any other form of discrimination.

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