Many in the Labour Party may be unaware that the Party of European Socialists even exists, let alone that they are members of it. But the PES is no mere paper organisation conjured temporarily into existence to satisfy some whim of the left’s wilder federalists. Rather, this is a fully-functioning body with and offices, officers and staff – and even a parallel political foundation. All are be found in large building near the European Parliament in Brussels on the Rue De Trone.
The annual budget of the PES is four million euros – the large bulk of which comes from the European Union topped up by a froth of subscriptions from various parties in EU member states.
The reason for the widespread ignorance about it is that the PES, despite resistance from some parties and individuals, has largely become the captive of the party bureaucracies across the EU and the creature of the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament.
The PES did produce a manifesto for last year’s European elections, but to describe that as dull and boring is to insult things which really are merely dull and boring. The PES is kept largely out of sight and out of mind of party members to minimise potential for trouble. Why rock the boat at home by introducing a new level of politics outside of domestic control? In the case of the Socialists and Democrats Group, why give teeth to a body that might interfere in the cosy carve-ups that threaten to drain the last drop of blood from Europe’s body politic? All this is mirrored in the operation of the other parties and foundations that cover the rest of EU’s political spectrum and spend close to 16 euros million between them every year – of which three-quarters is taxpayers’ money.
If Europe’s industrialists, entrepreneurs and business leaders have woken up to the necessity of operating at a European level as globalisation tears down the barriers and protection that enabled them in the past to hide behind the nation, then its time for politicians, trade unionists and activists to do the same. Although, to be fair, even if the employees are several laps behind the employers in the race, the trade unions are well ahead of the Labour Party, with both Unite and the GMB having dedicated staff in Brussels.
Now Notre Europe, the think tank founded almost 15 years ago by Jacques Delors and dedicated to “Thinking a united Europe”, has produced a pamphlet proposing to reinforce, strengthen and liberate these European parties from their captors. Julian Priestley’s European Political Parties: The Missing Link argues the case for major reform.
As Priestley says, the success of Europe as a political project is based on a functioning and efficient democratic system in which its citizens are fully engaged. That requires political parties operating on a continental scale. After the recognition of the need for such parties in both the Maastricht and Nice treaties, they were provided with EU money on the basis of a European Council and European Parliament regulation in 2003.
Priestley, for 10 years general secretary of the European Parliament, now sets out four key demands. First, European parties should allow individual membership. Second, the party membership as a whole should approve by secret ballot the programme and manifesto of the PES for European elections. Third, the parties should designate a candidate for the President of the European Commission on the basis of primaries. And fourth, the parties should sharpen their ideological differences.
Anyone who takes Europe seriously should give strong support to the first two propositions. The same can be said about the principle of the third, with doubts only about the process.
In 2009, despite a PES congress – yes, the PES has those as well – agreeing to have a “socialist” candidate for President of the European Commission, and the Lisbon Treaty requiring the European Council to “take account of the European election results in proposing to the European Parliament a nominee for the presidency of the Commission”, we saw Gordon Brown, together with his Spanish and Portuguese counterparts, also supposedly on the centre-left, endorse the right-wing Christian Democrat candidate José Manuel Barroso. It’s as if the leaders of the Welsh and Scottish Labour parties had endorsed David Cameron before May’s elections.
Nevertheless, the organisational task remains and to organise primaries in constituencies with 80,000 eligible voters when, as the Labour leadership ballot revealed, the party has as few as 43 members in some constituencies, seems insuperable. It might be better to settle for party members alone voting at this stage.
When Aneurin Bevan quipped that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party was a “desiccated calculating machine”, he had not seen European leaders in their 2009 conclave as they seemed to determine the composition of the European Commission by computer programme. Those nominees capable of doing the job are there as much by good luck as good judgement.
We need to bring proper politics back into the political system. To do this at a European level, there’s a need for both a lot more resources, as Julian Priestley argues, and for Ed Miliband give the sort of performance at European level in Brussels as he gave at Labour’s 2010 conference in Manchester.
Glyn Ford is a former Labour MEP. For more information about Julian Priestley’s European Political Parties: The Missing Link, please see www.notre-europe.eu
