Appeal to the left parties in the European Parliament

Appeal to the left parties in the European Parliament

September 2020

Introduction

We gave consideration to the appeal to the European Left, over its support for the motion on the EU Recovery Fund and Budget, and were agreeable to our organisation being added to the signatories. We agree that it is unacceptable for parties purporting to be on the left to support a call for funding of the military and border security.

However, we also have a number of criticisms of the appeal. In our view it downplays the the main thrust of the EU recovery plan which is an intensifying assault on the working class through the imposition of further austerity. From this perspective the statement from the European Left (EU RECOVERY FUND – A SIGNIFICANT COMPROMISE, BUT FULL OF FLAWS - 21/07/20) in which the agreement on the Recovery Fund was described as “a first step in the right direction” is equally - if not more deserving - of censure. We believe that the Recovery Fund is not a move towards integration within the EU but towards greater national antagonisms and ultimately its disintegration. (see EU Recovery Plan - pulling together or falling apart? for our analysis)

Despite our criticisms we have endorsed the appeal in its current form and will promote it on our website and Facebook page. Editor

Contents
Letter to the members of the left group GUE_NGL in the European Parliament
Letter to the presidencies of S-D, Greens and GUE-NGL
Appeal to the left parties in the European Parliament

Letter to the members of the left group GUE_NGL in the European Parliament

Dear member of the left group GUE/NGL in the European Parliament

The approval by a majority of members of the left group in the European Parliament of the resolution on the Conclusions of the extraordinary European Council meeting of 17-21 July 2020 did not go unnoticed by progressive forces from different quarters, from within the EU and even from without. In the first place, the peace movement is appalled that your group supported the call of the mainstream parties for a larger budget for the European Defence Fund; this is a fundamental break with the past, as the left was always opposed to the militarization of Europe. Secondly, the resolution calls for more money for the Integrated Border Management Fund. This implies the strengthening of the EU’s increasingly militarized approach to migration and asylum policy, responsible for thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean, a policy that has already been condemned by several humanitarian organisations. Thirdly, by approving the resolution, you also approve its silence on the conditions which may be attached to the approval of grants and loans; however, the explicit link of the recovery plan with the European Semester is far from reassuring.

We know that your group proposed a number of amendments, opposing some of the mentioned positions; this proves that you are well aware of the reprehensible points in the resolution. You did nevertheless approve it; if we should infer from this that GUE/NGL considered the three above mentioned objections as minor issues, we would thoroughly disagree with this.

Enclosed you find an Appeal to reconsider the political orientation in these matters, together with the list of signatories. They come from varied quarters and member states, and hopefully convince you of the expectations we put in you. As the final decisions will only be taken in the coming months, we hope your group will then have a principled attitude.

Kind regards,
The signatories of the Appeal

Letter to the presidencies of S-D, Greens and GUE-NGL

Dear Iratxe García Pérez, president of the S&D Group in the European Parliament,
iratxe.garcia-perez@ep.europa.eu

Dear Ska Keller, dear Philippe Lamberts, co-presidents of The Greens/EFA
franziska.keller@ep.europa.eu
philippe.lamberts@ep.europa.eu

Dear Manon Aubry, dear Martin Schirdewan, co-presidents of GUE/NGL
manon.aubry@europarl.europa.eu
martin.schirdewan@europarl.europa.eu

The approval by the progressive groups in the European Parliament (S&D, Greens and GUE/NGL) of the resolution on the Conclusions of the extraordinary European Council meeting of 17-21 July 2020 did not go unnoticed by progressive forces, from within the EU and even from without. In the first place, the peace movement is appalled by the support for a larger budget for the European Defence Fund, which implies a further militarization of Europe. Secondly, the resolution calls for more money for the Integrated Border Management Fund. May we remind you that the EU’s increasingly militarized approach to migration and asylum is already responsible for thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean, and that this policy has already been condemned by several humanitarian organisations. Thirdly, the resolution is silent on the conditions which will be attached to the approval of grants and loans, although the coupling with the European Semester is a bad omen.

May we ask you to inform your members on this Appeal ? We thank you in advance.

Kind regards,
The signatories of the Appeal

Appeal to the left parties in the European Parliament

On 23 July, the vast majority of the Left Group (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament approved, together with the social democratic (S&D), Green and rightist (EPP, Renew) parties, a resolution which opposes the ‘European deal’ of 21 July, in which the Council of the European heads of state and government reached an agreement on a European recovery plan and the multi-annual budget.

There is indeed much to be said against this deal, which was a compromise to meet the concerns of the ‘frugal’ member states, led by the Netherlands, which explain the problems of southern states like Italy and Spain as the consequence of their ‘irresponsible’ budgetary policy. The deal implied the reduction of a number of items of the recovery plan and the EU budget, including health and climate. That is a valid reason for opposition, also from the left. But the resolution of the European Parliament requests not only the restoration of the original amounts of money for socially responsible causes, but also for absolutely indefensible ones. The two most reprehensible items are the European Defence Fund and the Integrated Border Management Fund.

The Defence Fund is a surreptitious way of channelling European money to the military industry under the guise of ‘industrial policy’. The 21 July deal grants ‘only’ 7 billion for this fund. The military-industrial lobby is of course disappointed, because initially 13 billion € was foreseen. We cannot accept that left and progressive parties support a request for more money for the militarization of Europe.

And there is the ‘Integrated Border Management Fund’. By endorsing the Parliament resolution, the left-wing group calls for the strengthening of Frontex, the EU’s increasingly militarised approach to migration and asylum policy, responsible for thousands of drowning people in the Mediterranean, for outsourcing border surveillance to dictatorial regimes. This policy that has already been condemned by several humanitarian organisations, and can in no way be supported by progressive forces.

It should also be remarked that the resolution is silent on the conditions which, according to the European deal of 21 July, will be attached to the allocation of grants and loans from the Recovery Fund to the Member States. By supporting the resolution, one keeps quiet about this ‘money in exchange for neoliberal reforms’ horse trade.

We conclude that the resolution fundamentally contradicts progressive views in general, and the programmes of left-wing parties in the EU in particular. By approving it, the already severely weakened left in Europe makes itself superfluous.

The signatories of this call urge the left fraction in the European Parliament and its member parties to seriously reconsider their strategic options. We also appeal to the progressive forces in the social democratic, green and other parties to resist the militarization of Europe and an increasingly inhuman and antisocial policy.

Signed by:

Organizations:
Agir pour la Paix (Belgium), Belgische Coalitie stop uranium wapens, Bruxelles Panthères, Comité Surveillance OTAN, (Belgium), Communist Party of Finland, International Coordinating Committee of “No to war – no to NATO”, Leuvense Vredesbeweging (Belgium), Links Ecologisch Forum (LEF, Belgium), Mouvement Citoyen Palestine (Belgium), Socialist Democracy (Ireland), Stop Wapenhandel (Netherlands); Vredesactie (Belgium), Vrede vzw (Belgium)

Individuals:
Dirk Adriaensens, Brussells Tribunal (Belgium); Tassos Anastassiadis, member TPT, journalist (Greece); Karel Arnaut, antropologist, KU Leuven (Belgium); Jean Batou, solidaritéS/Ensemble à Gauche, member Geneva Parliament (Switzerland); Reiner Braun, Kampagne Stopp Air Base Ramstein (Germany); Ingeborg Breines, former president International Peace Bureau (Norway); Bob Brown, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (USA); Marijke Colle, ecofeminist, member SAP (Belgium); Filip De Bodt, Climaxi (Belgium); Ludo De Brabander, Vrede (Belgium); Lieven De Cauter, Philosopher, RITCS, School of Arts, & Department of Architecture KULeuven; Herman De Ley, Em. Professor, Ghent University (Belgium); Klaus Dräger, former policy advisor of the GUE/NGL on employment & social affairs (Germany); Yannis Felekis, member TPT, immigrant support activist (Greece); Pierre Galand, former senator Parti Socialiste (Belgium); Eloi Glorieux, former member Flemish Parliament, peace and ecological activist; Kees Hudig, editor Globalinfo.nl (Netherlands); Anton Jäger, University of Cambridge/Université Libre de Bruxelles; Ulla Jelpke, member of German Parliament (DIE LINKE); Dimitris Konstantakopoulos, editor defenddemocracy.press, former member of the Secretariat of SYRIZA (Greece); Stathis Kouvélakis; Costas Lapavitsas, Prof. of Economics, SOAS (London), former member of the Greek Parliament; Tamara Lorincz, PhD candidate, Wilfrid Laurier University, (Canada); Herman Michiel, editor Ander Europa (Belgium); Anne Morelli, honorary professor ULB (Belgium); Karl-Heinz Peil, Friedens- und Zukunftswerkstatt (Frankfurt, Germany); Lucien Perpette, member Fourth International (Slovenia); Stefanie Prezioso, member Swiss Parliament; Matthias Reichl, press speaker, Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence (Austria); Nordine Saïdi, decolonial activist (Belgium); Catherine Samary, Alter-European economist (France); Ingeborg Schellmann, member Attac (Germany); Rae Street, activist against NATO (UK); Daniel Tanuro, ecosocialist, author, member Gauche Anticapitaliste (Belgium); Eric Toussaint, spokesperson CADTM International; José Van Leeuwen, Docp/BDS, Netherlands, Willy Verbeek, president Beweging.net Herent (Belgium); Andy Vermaut, climate and peace initiative Pimpampoentje, president PostVersa (Belgium); Marie-Dominique Vernhes, in the name of 12 members of the working group ‘Europa’ of Attac Germany; Asbjørn Wahl, author and trade union adviser (Norway); Prof. David Webb, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK); Andreas Wehr, Marx-Engels-Zentrum Berlin; Thomas Weyts, member SAP (Belgium); Thodoris Zeis, member TPT, lawyer, refugees and immigrant support (Greece); Bob Zomerplaag, Enschede voor Vrede (Netherlands).

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