On 12 September, 2004 the EL Executive Board (ExB) held its second meeting in Brussels according to the work schedule adopted at its first meeting in Berlin on 11 July. It was presided by EL chairman Fausto Bertinotti. <//span>

Present were EL treasurer Pedro Marset and elected Board  members of member parties – the CP of Austria, the  Party of Democratic Socialism (Czech Republic), the Estonian  Social-Democratic Labour Party, the French CP, the PDS  (Germany), SYNASPISMOS (Greece), the Communist Refoundation  Party (PRC – Italy), the RC of San Marino, the United  Left (IU – Spain, representing also the Spanish CP  and the United Alternative Left of Catalonia), and the  Labour Party of Switzerland. Also represented were three  EL observer parties – AKEL (Cyprus), the CP of Slovakia  and the Party of Italian Communists as well as the Left  Bloc (Portugal), having applied at the Rome foundation  Congress for observer-status.

The observer party CP of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic)  and the member parties Socialist Alliance Party (Romania)  and Workers’ Party (Hungary) were not able to participate  for acceptable reasons.

Helmuth Markov, MEP, for the GUE/NGL, and staff attended  as invited guests.

The main aims of the meeting were:

• to exchange information and views on the political  situation in Europe, on aspects of current EU-policies,  analyses of the political development in the countries  the parties come from, as well as important political  and social developments in the World to be dealt with  by EL member parties
• to decide on the report of the EL treasurer on further  structural and organizational steps for the practical  work of the EL
• to update the work schedule of the party and evaluate  its implementation
• to receive reports on the built-up working groups  for specific political tasks
• to co-ordinate political actions and initiatives.

Results

1. The ExB agreed on a common understanding of its further  work: qualifying the personal responsibility of ExB-Members, strengthening the network structure, the communication  within the Board and with the individual member parties.  The Board stressed its will to continue working for a  common policy of the EL. These debates and decisions  of the Executive Board meeting can be summarized under  the headline: “Towards a common EL policy!”
2. The ExB approved reports by the responsible persons  of working groups for important EL acitivities according  to the work schedule 2004/2005, in particular Gennaro  Migliore, PRC Italy (activities on international anti-war-day,  campaign for the withdrawal of all foreign troups from  Iraq) , Katina Schubert, PDS Germany ( EL campaign for  a “European pact for full employment and social security"), Graziella Mascia, PRC ( EL conference  on the European Constitution Treaty) , Natasa Thedorakopoulou,  SYNASPISMOS Greece (participation of EL parties' activists  in the European Social Forum), Helmut Scholz, PDS (EL  internet presentation), Jiri Hudecek, SDS Czechia (individual  membership in the EL). The Board agreed to distribute  the main ideas and political proposals to the EL parties.
3. The meeting asked the EL MEPs to initiate during the  forthcoming EP session (13-17 September) an EP resolution  on the tragic events in Beslan with the cruel slaughter  of innocent children, women and men in this Northern  Ossetian city and its relationship to the Chechnya-conflict  in Russia. It condemned this unbelievable terrorist act  which is tearing down all human and moral barriers. The  ExB stressed the urgent necessity of an immediate restart  of international initiatives to support a political solution  of that conflict. The meeting received and confirmed  a position paper supporting further efforts for a peaceful  solution of the Cyprus problem.
4. The meeting received a draft appeal of the Estonian  SDLP for a political message of the EL ExB to the European  People’ s Party “From the denouncement of  communist ideology to the historical rehabilitation of  Nazism”. The draft has been given out to the EL parties for decision at the next ExB meeting on 6 November  2004 or earlier.
5. The ExB took note of a report of Brigitte Berthouzoz  on the EL women’s network and the planned network-meeting  on September 18. It asked the ExB members present at  that meeting to inform about the further work. Responding  to the request of the EL women structure the ExB agreed  to link the scheduled women plenary meeting with the  next EL Congress (2005).

EL registration and funding
   

1. The ExB thanked EL treasurer Pedro Marset for his  work on registration of the EL. The Party of the European  Left is now officially registered in Belgium as an association  with no lucrative purposes (ASBL) under the name Gauche  Europeenne (ASBL) - European Left.
2. The ExB took note of the budget the treasurer with  the support of EL chairman Fausto Bertinotti has drawn  up for the second half of the year 2004 on the basis  of the financial needs for realising political measures  and activities agreed upon in the work schedule. It also  took note of the application for co-funding of the EL  on the basis of the Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 submitted  to the European Parliament.
3. The EL treasurer has been asked to call a meeting  of the working group of EL member parties’ treasurers  for preparing a detailed report on further financial  aspects of the EL for the next meetings of the Council  of Chairpersons (Rome, 25 October, 2004) and the ExB  (Brussels, 6 November, 2004).The working group of treasurers  has also to prepare drafts of the EL budget for the year 2005 and the EL financial statute.
4. The ExB asked EL Chairman Fausto Bertinotti to prepare  a report for the CoCh-meeting in Rome on 25 October about  the applications for observership resp. membership status  of several parties (CPBM, CP of Slovakia, LeftBloc Portugal,  German CP).
5. The ExB started to discuss the draft ”Proposal  for provisional regulations concerning the individual  EL membership” presented by the PDS (Czech republic)  and agreed on further steps on this issue.
   

Further organizational matters

1. The ExB stressed the significance of the structural  paper “The European Left – a networking party”,  discussed during the Berlin meeting. The ExB-Members  are asked to initiate the formation of working groups  and networks by party structures and members, encouraging  in particular the construction of working groups on trade  union policy and of trade-unionists networks, working groups on social and economic policies.
2. The working group for the EL’s internet appearance  (ACP, ESDTP, PDS) presented a first proposal for the  possible structure of a professional webpage. The working  group has been asked to speed up that work. The presentation  of the EL’s internet appearance is to be realized  at the EL CoCh meeting on 25 October, 2004.
   The working group stressed the necessity of establishing a redaction group  of all interested parties for guaranteeing a permanent and actual political  content of that webpage.
3. The Executive Board took a decision on the use of  the EL Logo “European Left”.