MANIFESTO NFI 2007 MANIFESTO FOR A NEW EUROPE - ΜΑΝΙΦΕΣΤΟ ΓΙ | Page 4

Manifesto for a New Europe
:: PUBLIC GOODS AND
SERVICES
SUCCESSFUL EUROPEAN INTEGRATION will be largely
conditional on the supply of public goods and services includ-
ing social security, health, education and training, water and
transport and on ensuring fair access to these public goods.
These sustainability values will need to be anchored more
safely and in more concrete terms in a revised constitutional
treaty for Europe.
:: GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY
EUROPE NEEDS to perceive itself as an alternative to the
current neoliberalism and, with this in mind, to assume glo-
bal responsibility and to act globally. Fighting poverty, work-
ing towards a fair world economic order, making peace policy,
assuming social responsibility and mainstreaming democracy
are the core tasks of Europe. These tasks must also be pursued
by international organisations, such as GATS, the World Bank,
etc. Europe should form a coalition in the interests of a strong,
international economic and fiscal governance structure within
which affluence, development, stability and justice would be
based on economic interdependence and solidarity rather than
on strategic competition.
:: NORTH-SOUTH
NOTWITHSTANDING THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT of
individual countries in the southern hemisphere, the North-
South conflict has deepened in recent years. Economic compe-
tition with industrialised countries, requirements for structural
adjustments by the International Monetary Fund and post-co-
lonial (civil) wars have made poverty, misery, hunger, and lack
of access to clean water a reality in many African countries.
The mountains of debts, which many so-called Third-World
countries are shouldering, have grown and prevent the proper
and sustainable development of these countries. These proc-
esses have to be counteracted with a solidarity globalisation
scheme. Europe needs to play an active and dispositive role in
this process of empowerment.
:: ECOLOGY
SETTING ALL SIGHTS on quantitative economic growth will
end in natural resources being ruthlessly used up. Air, water,
soils and the planet’s entire climate system urgently require a
political turnabout to guarantee their protection and conse-
quently the means of existence for humanity. Steps towards
4 International Friends of Nature
abandoning fossil fuels and nuclear power and towards switch-
ing to renewable energy sources and reducing CO 2 emissions
need to be taken without further delay, if ecological disaster
is to be prevented.
:: PEACE
THE END OF the East-West confrontation failed to make the
world a more peaceful place. On the contrary, radical attempts
on the part of the USA to enforce its claim to world supremacy
have enhanced global uncertainty and have moreover led to
new forms of armed conflict. Post-colonial conflicts continue to
escalate into wars and violent confrontations, be it in Africa or
on the Balkans. The world is still insufficiently prepared for the
peaceful resolution of domestic or international conflicts. The
EU is no exception when it comes to investing more resources
in military strategy than in peacekeeping and peace building.
The EU ought to position itself as a global player in the arena
of peaceful and non-violent conflict resolution.
:: ANTI-DISCRIMINATION,
GENDER EQUALITY AND
DEMOCRACY
EUROPEAN SOCIETIES persist in upholding institutions and
norms that discriminate and exclude the ‘Other’. Social class
background, ethnicity and nationality, sex and sexual orienta-
tion are examples of such difference structures, which continue
to entail disadvantages and inequality. Sustainable growth and
affluence in Europe, however, are conditional on the integra-
tion of all people on a basis of equality. Gender equality and
the recognition of diversity and dissimilarity must, therefore,
become part of a sustainable European social and redistribution
policy. A Europe committed to social justice and equality is only
feasible on the basis of democracy and participation. Only if
every citizen has the opportunity to shape his/her own life and
only if their right to have a say and in shaping developments
is institutionalised, will the EU gain the legitimacy it needs for
the achievement of its goals.
In the shift of eras, the time has now come for Europe to
cast its global responsibility into a political mould. We must
learn to orient politics to the future rather than the present.
Europe needs to newly regulate and to balance the functions
and tasks of markets, states and civil societies, and the primacy
of politics needs to be ensured.