ECI, transaction tax & the details of EU policy-making

The German and Austrian Social Democrats have decided today that they want to initiate a European Citizens' Initative (ECI) on the introduction of a financial transaction tax.

The way their press release is formulated makes it sound like they are calling for a referendum (cf. last sentence that reads: '... for that 500 million Europeans can decide over the taxation of financial market speculation'), not mentioning that all they can do with an ECI is make the Commission consider the issue.

They should also mention the timeframe of an ECI and that once they had a successful ECI, the proposal needed to be taken up by the Commission (where there is no social-democratic majority) and it had to be passed (probably according to Art. 113 TFEU) by the Council with unanimity. The European Parliament would only be consulted (if the decision was taken under Art. 113 TFEU).

And only the EU experts - those who know that the ECI regulation is not yet in place and that you cannot even start an ECI right now - will notice that the last paragraph of the press release is actually just a demand that the ECI regulation will be put in place until autumn, so that the Social Democrats can begin their ECI. For the rest of the readers this sounds like the Social Democrats demand an EU transaction tax until autumn.

And if they knew the present state of the ECI discussions, they would also know that 500 million Europeans (as formulated in the last sentence) will not decide about an ECI because the participation age for the ECI is proposed to be the election age of EU citizens which will exclude some 100 million Europeans from this agenda setting instrument. But they anyway only need 1 million signatures.

It is thus nice that the German and Austrian Social Democrats want to make use of the new democratic element given to EU citizens, but the way they treat this issue is far from realistic and thus merely a PR instrument - but the press will surely buy it.

PS.: German social democratic MEP Matthias Groote is aware of that and thus focuses on his demands regarding the implementation of the ECI which seems much more reasonable at this point.

What was going on at the ECOSY Congress?

Last weekend, the Young European Socialists (ECOSY) gathered for their congress in Brussels, where a new leadership was about to be elected.

Looking on Twitter, I found the following messages:

• Ilia Markov (Bulgaria): "Back home from Brussels after a devastating ECOSY Congress. But it was interesting to witness such a historic event :)

• Villu Viidul (Estonia): "back in estonia after very strange ECOSY Congress in Brussels"

• Sebastiaan Van der Vliet (Netherlands): "Back from the (maybe last) ecosy conference in Brussels. Friday bizarre, but great weekend" (translated)

• Christophe Schiltz (Luxembourg): "elected vice-president of ECOSY - Young European Socialists at a messy congress in Brussels.

Couldn't find more on the web, so it would be interesting to hear what was going on?

Just the typical post lobbying or other things going on, too?

Update: According to letzi, "ECOSY is right now facing an internal clash between the social-democrats and the leftist parts."

Update 2:: Polish blog post on the Congress (Google translated)

Social democratic parties under pressure?

Having just watched "C dans l'air", a political TV show on "France 5", I had a strange déjà-vue:

It seems as if in France and in Germany the same discussions concerning the social democratic parties are taking place. Both, the Socialist Party (PS) of France and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) are facing strong internal debates not only concerning the general political and programmatic direction but also concerning the leadership of the parties. And in both countries, the social democratic parties have difficulties handling their competitors to the left, the Communist Party in France and the Left Party in Germany, which are able to take up many classical issues formerly occupied by social democratic discourses.

The move to the political centre of the social democracy and the continuing disputes about leadership and political orientations will most probably strengthen both, the centre-right parties as well as the more extreme left in the upcoming years. I don't see that without a particular charismatic leadership the social democratic parties, at least in France and Germany, can get back their former strong positions.

And this will bring about quite interesting political constellations (both, positive and negative)...