The EL Executive Board (ExB) held its fourth session in Berlin according to the work schedule. During the two-day meeting the EL ExBoard members, representatives of observer parties as well as guests participated in the traditional commemoration of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, taking place each year at the second Sunday of the year to memorize the murder of these two revolutionaries in January 1919. For the first time this was a topic of the European Left, decided upon at the EL Founding Congress. <//span>  

EL Chairman Fausto Bertinotti and Helmut Scholz (PDS)  chaired the meeting.

The ExB co-opted the newly introduced comrades Maite  Mola, Communist Party of Spain, and Peter  Székely, Hungarian Workers Party, who  will work as a member of the ExBoard instead of Comrade Vajnai.

 Present at the meeting were EL treasurer Pedro Marset  (I.U. – Spain) and elected Board members – G.  Hopfgartner (Austrian CP), M. Hornychova and J. Hudecek  (SDS - Czech Republic), S. Kingsepp and E. Ehala (ELP -  Estonia), Ch. Mendelsohn and J.-F. Gau (PCF), K. Schubert and H. Scholz (PDS -Germany), N. Theodorakopoulou and St.  Pappas (Synaspismos - Greece), G. Mascia and G. Migliore  (PRC – Italy), P. Szekely (Workers' Party, Hungary),  Maite Mola and José Luiz Nunez (CP of Spain), Antoni  Barbarà (EUiA – Catalonia, Spain), Willi Meyer  (I.U., Spain) Brigitte Berthouzoz and Jozef Zisyadis (Labour  Party of Switzerland).

 The observer parties AKEL (Cyprus) was represented by  Chrysanthos Zannettos, the CP of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech  Republic) was represented by Vaclav Exner and Hassan Charfo,  the Left Bloc from Portugal by Miguel Portas and Carmen  Hilário, the Communist Party of Slovakia by Karol  Ondrias.

 ExB-Members Waltraud Fritz-Klackl (ACP), Gianluca della  Valle (RC San Marino), Annamaria Rotaru and Constantin  Cretu (SAP) as well as Laszlone Szabo (HWP) asked to be  excused.

 The member party Socialist Alliance Party (Romania) was  represented by its Vice chair Cornel Florin Balaure. The  Party of Italian Communists (PdCI) and The Left (Luxemburg),  both observer parties, as well as the NGLA-representatives  had informed not being able to participate.

 Invited guests included the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten)  of Denmark representative Thomas Clausen, the German Communist  Party representatives Heinz Stehr, chairman, and Leo Mayer,  Board member, Polish Socialist Party Vice Chair Jerzy Stefanski,  the Turkish Freedom and Solidarity Party Vice Chair Haydar  Ilker, PDS National Executive Board member and speaker  on Foreign affairs Wolfgang Gehrcke, the activists Paola  Giaculli (Prc), Josè Cordon (FCP), Dominic Heilig  (o.b. EL Office) and staff.

 Main results, decisions and agreements:

  1. The Board discussed and exchanged  views on current developments within the EU and the home  countries of member parties. All participants of the meeting  remembered the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in  South and South-East Asia with a minute of silence. Special  attention was given to the beginning process of ratification  of the EU treaty for a constitution of Europe. The European  Left is challenged to combine in its campaign for a “NO” convincing  arguments for referenda with concrete alternative proposals  for a different constitution of Europe. The ExB took notice  of some examples for public material (leaflets, flyers  etc.,) produced already in Spain and being in preparation  in France.
 
A political statement on the presidential elections in  Palestine (which took place the same day) and EL positions  on the situation in the whole Middle East region were discussed  and adopted, the ongoing solidarity with the Palestinian  people once  more stressed.

Discussed was the situation in South and South-East Asia  after the Tsunami-disaster; a broader exchange of views  concerning possible ways for supporting immediate international  aid to the people living in the poorest affected regions  as well as creating a long- and mid-term strategy of future  disaster prevention. The EL Executive Board adopted a joint  statement (). On initiative of Synaspismos the  Executive Board protested  against the extradition of Kurdish activist Sinan Bozkurt to Germany.

2. The Board received reports  of ExB members responsible for working groups and  took the necessary decisions:

(a) Report on the EL initiative for an alternative “Pact  of full employment and social security” to  break the all-pervading power of the EU stability pact.  This process has to be more closely linked to the social  struggles going on in the EU countries. It must be  developed within the time frame of the ESF and trade  union debates on social and economic affairs, on resistance  to neo-liberal models.

 The Board confirmed the initiative to present first theses  on an alternative stability pact paper in the discussions  with social movements during the alternative Social Summit  (March 18-19, 2005 in Brussels). A possible occasion could  be the GUE/NGL hearing on the „Bolkestein“ directive  (on services) on March 18, 2005 in Brussels. The EL joins  the international „Anti-Bolkestein-initiative“ webpage  and actively collects signatures within their membership  as well as in the public ( www.stopbolkestein.org )

The draft theses should be sent out to all ExB Members  till March 3 for further comments and proposals.

R.: J. -F. Gau and N. Theodorakopoulou (for the two working  groups)

The activities and work of the EL ExB working group “alternative  stability pact” will be included in future in the  general work of the newly formed horizontal structured EL  working group on economic policies (Paris, 2004).  All ExB members are requested to inform their parties on  that decision and to establish links to corresponding structures  in their parties working on left alternatives to neo-liberal  economic policies. The EL will stimulate new forms of cooperation  and communication tools (for example mailing-lists) to  advance discussions between activists and members on these  issues.

R.: all ExB members

Members / Contacts of the working group  – confirmed  until now - are:
French CP: A. Obadia ( aobadia@pcf.fr )  and as EL ExB contact J.-F. Gau ( jfgau@pcf.fr )
Romanian SAP: C. Cretu ( c.cretu@xnet.ro )  as EL ExB contact to SAP
PDS: J. Dellheim ( Judith.Dellheim@web.de ) , B. Schneider ( gzimmer-assistant@europarl.eu.int ),  H. Markov ( hmarkov@europarl.eu.int )

(b) Report of the working group on EL web  presentation: On the basis of documents  sent out earlier (workflow, sitemap) and the presentation  of the EL website and the Content Management capabilities of Plone by “minuskel screen partner GmbH “ the  ExB has been informed that the final technical construction  of the website is ready from February 25. Therefore  the editorial group has to be built up till that time.  All parties (Member parties as well as Observer Parties  if interested) are urgently requested to nominate their  representatives for this group. (Decision of the Paris  meeting - each party should be represented by at least  one member in the editorial group, being the contact  to the web-presence of each party).It is confirmed  that English is the working / “guidance” language.  All parties themselves are responsible for translating  the common documents, the contents of the webpage into  the mother tongue.

(c) W. Gehrcke gave a short report on behalf of the working  group “Preparation of the 60 th anniversary of  victory over Hitler-fascism and end of World War II”. He  suggested combining several activities – common  as well as individual actions towards antifascists  and activists of the liberation struggle. The Left  should join all activities to resist any attempt of  revising history and the broad resistance struggle  within the European societies. That is even more important  in view of the new wave of history revisionism and  the growth of right-wing extremism in almost all European  countries, in Central and Eastern Europe in particular.

Agreement was reached on the broadest possible participation  of EL representatives in decentralised meetings and public  activities on that occasion. The already scheduled two  EL conferences / meetings (Potsdam, Prague) should be directly  connected with the task to commemorate the 60 th a anniversary:  first, the EL meeting of left parliamentarians taking place  on 18-20 March in Potsdam and Berlin, secondly the International  Conference ”Socialism in the XXIst century and international  security policy” hosted by the CPBM on 23-24 April  in Prague. (The CPBM confirmed at request to convene that  conference as a joint initiative by CPBM, GUE/NGL and EL).

During the discussion special attention was drawn to  difficult discussions about the historical relationship  of liberation/occupation in Estonia and other Baltic countries.  A lot of aggressive attacks to equate German fascism with  Soviet rule in the Baltic’s are carried out by the conservative forces as well as the media in that direction.  The Estonian Left Party representatives asked for stronger  support from other EL parties to spread information about  these attacks and the “official political behaviour” of  their government in all European countries. It was suggested  to make this aspect a topic of the political fight all  over Europe against the revision of history.

Representatives of all EL parties are requested to take  part in the meetings with resistance fighters and to stress  that the EL considers the liberation from German Hitler-fascism  as the real birth of the new Europe.

(d) N. Theodorakopoulou gave a report of the ExB  working group co-operation with social movements on  the preparations of the 4 th World Social Forum in  Porto Allegre. The EL will be presented by a considerable  number of EL parties’ activists in Brazil. They  are members of national delegations and will participate  in the WSF workshops as well as in political debates  organised by themselves, for example in the Parliamentarians’ meeting  as well as in various workshops of the political foundations  etc.

Information was given about further preparatory work  for the 4 th ESF 2006 in Greece; the first meeting of the  international preparatory committee for it is to be held  in Athens, February 26-27, 2005.

Christine Mendelsohn called for a permanent co-operation  of the EL with the social movements. The EL has to emphasize  the role of the European metropoles as well as its own  relationship to the Mediterranean region (MrSF, Barcelona  2005). Maite Mola focussed on the women’s forum.  It is very important to include this item in the ESF preparatory  meeting in February.

The coordinators of the working group Natasa Theodorakopoulou  and Christine Mendelsohn (for the MrSF in particular) are  requested to inform about the results of the WSF in Porto  Alegre, the preparations of the Brussels Alternative summit  /European Action day and the other meetings scheduled for  2005/2006) at the ExBoard meeting on 12-13 March in Brussels.

3. The ExB received information by G. Migliore (PRC)  about the ongoing work of the EL working group ‘EU  Constitutional Treaty’ (ECT). He gave a survey on  the state of ratification of the EU Treaty for a Constitution  for Europe in the various EU member states and the position  of the different political forces towards the ratification  process. He discussed the different – positive and  negative – aspects of the Constitution treaty and the perspectives of ratification in the EU member states.  He explained the opportunities for campaigning the NO to  the EU-treaty for almost all parties. He stressed that  the EL has to focus its campaigning capabilities on those  countries, where referenda will take place and real chances exist for getting a majority against the EU Constitutional  treaty. Common papers / information material - i.e. leaflets,  posters, booklets and other material for use in the campaign  have to be worked out and produced.

 During the debate it was stressed that the ECT is considered  to be a step back in questions of gender equality and that  this dimension of inequality should be part of the campaign,  in particular the effects of privatisation on the situation  of women (CP of Spain). For the PCF Jean-François  Gau reported about the political debate on the EU Constitutional  treaty in France. The EL should focus on the link between  the (neo-liberal) contents of the constitution and the  present suffering of the people. But he also stressed that  it is decisive to stress the “No to the Constitution”-campaign  in the name of Europe, not in a nationalist sense, as the political Right is doing. He pledged for working out a  common EL leaflet as soon as possible. It should be presented  on the same day in all countries. He suggested to create  an information/support network which should cooperate against  the constitution. Thirdly, numerous events and meetings  should be organized by the EL parties to popularize the campaign via joint presentations.

In the debate Helmut Scholz stressed the importance of  reflecting on the time table of ratification procedures  in some countries; i.e. the results of the referendum in  Spain will be used for the acceleration of the ratification  procedures in Germany at the parliamentarian level in a  very short period of time and that its results will have  an direct impact on the campaign in France. So the political  Left has to deal with these developments in a political  sense. It means: a common leaflet is not enough, but the  working group should accelerate the work in order formulate  concrete alternative positions of the EL for own proposals concerning the European Constitution. Concentration should  be given to economic, social and peace alternatives.

Wolfgang Gehrcke stressed the importance of a political  agreement of the EL in the constitutional question for  its identity.

For Synaspismos Stelios Pappas informed on the situation  in Greece. He called for formulating an alternative policy  on the EU Constitution very quickly.

Summarizing the debate it was agreed, that the working  group ‘EU constitution’,  should continue its work. The working group is required to concentrate on the following questions:

• to work out a timetable of the public campaign for European  referenda;
• to take part in the Barcelona meeting of the Spanish  EL parties;
• to produce a common leaflet in the proposed sense;
• members of the EP representing the EL member parties  take an active part in the debate in the EP.
• to propose texts on the main problems of an alternative  EL text for a socially just, peaceful, democratic Europe  as an alternative to the existing EU constitutional treaty  and other burning issues of further EU development (i.  e. positive / negative parts of the constitution, alternatives;  the subject of further political developments in Europe,  the stability pact, the services directive – the  main issues of European policy despite the further fate  of the EU Constitutional treaty etc.);
• to request the French CP to initiate concrete proposals  for common actions of the EL in the campaign for a No to  the EU Constitutional Treaty and to include all this into  the campaigning schedule.
• R.: G. Migliore
• Preparation of the 1 st EL Congress, October 8-9, 2004  in Spain

EL Chairman Fausto Bertinotti used that topic to explain  first ideas and some expectations in connection with the  1 st Congress of the EL.

He took the opportunity to invite all EL ExB Members  to the PRC congress in Venice (March 3-6).

Concerning some aspects of the EL 1 st Congress he stressed  in particular:

• The congress should not be an imitation of the congresses  of the national parties. It should be a political significant  event: first, it should be built in relationship to European  social movements; secondly, it should address the most  active layers of the society; thirdly, it should become  a mobilizing moment for the EL itself; shortly: it has  to reflect the European understanding of the political  cooperation of Left parties within the EL.
• The 1 st congress should also present an “EL  identity document”, which should not be the answer  to the question who we are, but what we want, how the Europe  we want shall be.
• In a second part of the congress the CoCh, the EL ExB  and the delegates have to make an evaluation of the work  of the EL from the point of view of organizational and  structural experience. The aim should be to enhance the  consolidation of the party.
• The Congress should also discuss and decide in the  interest of future political capabilities of the EL whether  majority decisions in the EL are possible.
• It was decided that the Congress preparatory group should  be constituted within the next two weeks. The group is  to consist of one member from every member party, either  being ExB member or representing the existing working groups  or representing other member party structures. The gender  quotation should be a guideline, but not a dogma for the  construction of the preparatory group.

  5. On the EL political agenda and the 2005 work  schedule

• Summarizing various proposals, a revised draft work-schedule  for 2005 (as  PDF) was principally adopted.  Its main points are:
• 1st EL Congress, Barcelona, October 8-9, 2005, including  a women assembly on the eve of EL congress;
• various political activities around the 60 th anniversary  of liberation from Hitler fascism and end of World War  II, May 8 and 9, 2005;
• EL support for various political activities of EL parties  in their campaigning on the EU Constitutional Treaty in  the referenda in the EU countries
• the ParlaCon ’05 - meeting of deputies of different  parliamentarian levels (municipal, regional, national,  European) of EL member parties, Potsdam, March 18-20, 2005;
• participation in the 5 th WSF, Porto Alegre January  2005.
• Participation in the European Social Action Day, Brussels  18-19 March, 2005.

6. At the request of the Council of  Chairpersons the EL Executive Board had to finally decide  on the applications of various European left wing parties  for observership resp. membership forwarded to the Party  of the European Left. It was agreed to decide about those  applications sent to the EL until the meeting of the CoCh  (October 25, 2004) or renewed until November 30, 2004 – the  date of publication of the results of the EL ExBoard meeting  in Paris (November 2004).

The ExB agreed to grant observer status to  the

• Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), Danmark
• German Communist Party (DKP), Germany
• Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP), Turkey .

Representatives of the three parties explained the reasons  for their applications and informed about current developments  and positions of their parties.

Miguel Portas, Left Bloc, Portugal, informed the EL ExB  about a unanimous decision of the Party Board to change  the LB’s status from observership to membership.  This decision has to be confirmed by the LB's next party  congress (May, 2005) before becoming valid.

The application of the Communist Party of Finland for  observership status (letter dated 21.12.04) has been noted;  it was agreed to forward it to the Council of Chairpersons  according to the EL Statutes for the further procedure  and also to enable member parties to discuss the application.

Concerning the letter of the CPBM proposing a meeting  of EL parties and other left wing, mainly communist parties  the ExB decided to stick principally to the regulations  and principles of the EL Statutes. It was stressed that  there is no need to change the procedures laid down in these joint decisions at the EL Founding Congress.

At the request of the CPBM (letter of Vaclav Exner  and Hassan Charfo) the EL ExBoard discussed various aspects  of the CPBM relationship to the EL, including  proposals of general understanding of the EL as well as concrete passages of the EL Statutes (see the underlined  phrases:

Therefore we refer to the values and traditions of  the socialist, communist and labour movement, of feminism,  the feminist movement and gender equality, of the environmental  movement and sustainable development, of peace and international  solidarity, of human rights, humanism and antifascism,  of progressive and liberal thinking, both nationally  and internationally. We work together in the tradition  of the struggles against capitalist exploitation, ecological  destruction, political oppression and criminal wars,  against fascism and dictatorship, in resistance to patriarchal  domination and discrimination against “others”.

We defend this legacy of our movement which inspired  and contributed to securing the social certainties of  millions of people. We keep the memory of these struggles  alive including the sacrifices and the sufferings in  the course of these struggles. We do this in unreserved  disputation with undemocratic, Stalinist practices and  crimes, which were in absolute contradiction to socialist  and communist ideals .

The political and economic developments in the capitalist  societies at the beginning of the 21st century create  the necessity and the possibility for parties of the  Left, for democratic movements and alternative social forces, when working out and realising social alternatives  not only to take into account all aspects of globalisation  and internationalisation. Europe as a new space for the  integration of more and more countries in East and West,  in North and South is both an opportunity and a challenge  to regain the political initiative for Left forces. We  want and have to most closely combine our work on this  political level with the social activities of members  and sympathizers of the party organisations within the communities, regions and nation states.

We are doing it in sharp rejection of and developing  an alternative to capitalism and to the financial hegemonic  groups with its worldwide attempts of pushing through  neo-liberal policies into the daily life of the peoples  by the so-called political and economic elites.

In a frank and principal debate the El Ex Board unanimously  stressed that the agreed formula in the Statutes on the  term of “Stalinism” is “non-negotiable.” This  understanding includes the need and the will of the Board  to review permanently the experience and results of the common political and organizational work, to seek further  improvement of the political practice and to react on developments  in the societies.

The Board stressed at the end of the debate that it regards  this discussion as finished. The positions are clear and  open since the founding congress; the debate on that issue  is part of the founding principles of the EL.

8. Individual membership

The ExBoard finally agreed to the paper proposed by Jiri  Hudecek and Miroslava Hornychova some time ago. The Board  stressed that all El parties should take more efforts to  open concrete ways for interested sympathizers of the EL,  its logic and ideas, to join  the party.

After the experimental period of 2 years the EL ExB has  to analyze the various experience, forms and practical  steps of EL parties to attract individual members, the  expectations of individual members and their reflections  on the EL, on their chances to take part in the development  of the EL. These analyses are to be presented to an EL  Congress for further discussion of that aspect of EL development.

9. Working languages

At a request of the French CP and the Spanish member  parties the ExBoard discussed the general issue of using  other languages besides English as EL working tools.

During the debate on that issue the common point of view  was stressed that the EL has to protect the cultural and  language diversity as an important value and part of the  European cultural heritage. On the other hand the concrete  financial and material conditions for the internal organization  of EL work means to reduce the costs to a reasonable minimum.  Therefore, cooperation in the EL needs a broadest possible support from the EL parties to guarantee equal opportunities  for all parties to cooperate within the EL.

During the debate it was stressed that the language problem  affects all structures and levels of the EL as well as  the public presentation of the political Left both at the  European level and inside the parties. To develop cooperation  between the parties and the parties’ membership a maximum of readiness and efforts is needed to overcome  the language barrier, to translate common texts etc. and  to reflect on the common difficulties in that direction.  Therefore it should be possible not to make the use of  languages a political and principal question but to find  flexible forms answering the concrete conditions and opportunities.  This question should be reconsidered from time to time  according to practical experience the EL will collect in  its various new forms of cooperation.

During the meeting is became obvious that EL structures  with members or representatives not being able to use one  working language need a multilingual procedure of work.  That means the use of simultaneous translation. Therefore  the EL has to include in its work an own budget title for  translation costs.

It was agreed to try to concentrate for the next meetings  of the Board and of other EL working structures on the  use of English or English and French as working languages.  T he question of translation should be handled flexibly  depending on the place of the meeting and the possibilities  of the members taking part.

This temporary compromise concerns only he way of organizing  internal meetings. For all other activities (public conferences  etc. ) a concrete proposal has to be presented to the Board  as part of the financial plan of those activities/ proposals.

It was also agreed that English is to be kept as the  only working language for the written communication and  the exchange of texts and papers.

10.   Treasurer Pedro Marset gave a report  on the financial and structural situation of the EL . He  informed about the budget 2004 (main expenditures and income-situation)  and the planning for the EL budget 2005.

11. As discussed and decided by the  ExB during the Brussels meeting in September 2004, the  EL from November 20 has a provisional office in Brussels at REGUS Brussels Schuman [address: Rond  Point Schuman 6, B-1040 Brussels] for a maximum term of  3 months. A permanent office solution has to be prepared  and decided as soon as possible.

Other items

• The EL ExB took note of a report of Dr Dietmar Wittich  concerning the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (rls) backed study ”Synopsis  of the socials milieus of selected European left Parties”,  and had a discussion on it. The rls will continue in spring  2005 (March / April) its seminar on “Left wing party  policy and practice”. Interested people of EL parties,  in particular sociologists should be informed through all  ExB Members and could be invited by the rls, if interested.
• The distributed questionnaire concerning interaction  of left wing parties in Europe, formulated by Martin Schirdewan,  is requested to be sent back to him directly for further  scientific work on this subject as soon as possible.