For a Social and Democratic Europe! For Solidarity and Unity between Western and Eastern Europe!

250 delegates from 19 European countries came together in Paris on 24th-25th June for a conference to discuss and prepare the next steps forward after the French and Dutch rejections of the European Constitutional Treaty. The initiative for calling the conference came from a number of organisations in France that had been central to bringing about a No vote there.

An important feature of the Conference was the unanimous solidarity it expressed with Eastern Europe and the support it gave to continued enlargement of the EU. This issue was raised right at the beginning of the conference by the first speaker Mare Anceva, General Secretary of the metal workers’ union of Macedonia. She said there was some confusion in the Balkans about whether the No vote was a rejection of enlargement and against extension of the EU into the Balkans. She explained the positive effect the possibility of EU membership was having on political stability in the region. Metal workers’ unions from Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania were now all working together in a way that once would have been impossible. Although the possibility of EU membership was at very different stages in these countries it was playing an important role in helping to unite the unions. “We believe globalisation cannot be stopped”, she said, “but we can unite together across borders to defend social standards and rights. We need to do this across the whole of Europe. We must not say No to Europe, but Yes to a social Europe.”

Her theme was reiterated later by Peter Damo, from the Romanian Social Forum, who said his government was trying to present the No vote in France and the Netherlands as a vote to block Romanian and Bulgarian EU membership. This situation was being exploited by reactionary nationalist and religious forces in Romania. “We must make absolutely clear that the No vote was a vote against that Europe – the one contained in the Constitution. We must work to build a Europe with the people and for the people – a social, democratic, environmentally friendly, egalitarian and peaceful Europe.”

Speaker after speaker took up this same theme, making clear their support for a united social and democratic Europe with full participation of the Eastern European and Balkan countries. Speaking immediately after Mare Anceva, a delegate from Catalonia ATTAC stressed that the next steps forward must include a strong campaign against any attempt to use the No votes to block Bulgarian and Romanian EU membership. “We must be in the forefront of calling for the EU budget to be used for developing the Eastern European countries.”, he said. He called for local social forums to be held throughout Europe on the 4th March next year to show people that we were not negative about Europe, but positive for a social Europe. “The No vote was not a vote against Europe, not a vote against widening. It was a vote for a social and democratic Europe. We have to make that absolutely clear.”, he reiterated.

Further speakers continued to stress the need for the EU budget to be used primarily to bring about the “social harmonisation”of Eastern with Western Europe and the careful formulation of this demand became a central point of discussion in drafting an agreed concluding text from the conference.

Speakers from France explained how important it was for the French political scene that so many different groups on the left had come together, held together, and succeeded together in mobilising millions of people in a united campaign to bring about the No vote. They said people outside France might not realise how unusual this was – it was difficult to remember it happening before. A decisive effect of the campaign had been to create a split in the French Socialist Party on the issue. A No vote campaigner from the Socialist Party explained, “We were in a minority. The Yes vote supporters in our party got 57% in their favour. But we felt we could not stay silent. We had to join in the united No vote campaign that was taking place.” Other French delegates stressed the key role the European Social Forums had played in creating this unity of the French left. “The European Social Forums taught us to work together”, said Sophie Zafari from the Federation Syndicale Unitaire, “the No vote represents an important positive victory gained from that way of working.”

Her theme was taken up by others, who also stressed the role of the Social Forums. Speakers pointed to the contrast between the Europe being developed through these European Social Forums and the Europe that Tony Blair will try to impose through the UK’s Presidency of the EU. A delegate from Portugal warned that the UK Presidency would undoubtedly be six months of attack on social rights. “We are at a turning point.”, he said, “Either we will have a Europe ruled by the market or we will have a social and democratic Europe”. A French speaker took up the same topic. “Blair says ’We can’t have a Europe as it is’. He is right! We must welcome the fact that now everything is out in the open. There is a crisis in the EU, but there is a place where Europe is being built – that place is at the European Social Forums. We must oppose Blair’s vision of a market dominated Europe with the vision being developed there.”

Several speakers stressed the need to bring about further concrete victories to consolidate and take forward the defeat of the Constitution. An immediate possibility for scoring another victory was to defeat the pro-privatisation ’Bolkenstein Directive”. It was agreed that a united campaign should take place to achieve this aim. Another area designated for joint campaigning was on the question of working time. Although there were differences expressed on whether or not this should involve the complete rejection of the present Working Time Directive there was general agreement that fighting for a statutory restriction on hours of work should be a major area for joint activity.

The second day of the conference consisted of a very open and democratic process to agree a final text representing united positions of the participants. The careful way this was done, with every effort made to allow differences to be expressed, encapsulated the spirit of the conference as a whole, which was to maintain the unity that had defeated the EU Constitution and take this forward into further victories. It was agreed that further meetings around the final text should be organised within the ESF processes, with the aim of achieving a more developed united programme and establishing other areas for joint action.

Social Rights Bulgaria will publish the final text in English and Bulgarian as soon as the final draft has been made.