Click in the following link to access the European News Flash News (EFAY Newsletter): Newsletter 10

The President of the EFAy, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, was invited to speak at an annual event organised by EFAy members Joves d'Esquerra Nacionalista ( www.jen.cat ) on Saturday 17th November 2007.

The Escola Tardor Jaume Serra event is organised by JEN every Autumn and guests are invited to speak on different topics. This year Rhisiart was invited to speak about "A Europe of the Free Peoples" and the position of the EFAy.

Other topics that were discussed included group psychology, ecological agriculture and the situation of the Catalan culture and language, with experts from these fields invited along to speak. The two day event was also an opportunity for members of JEN to come together socially for a fun and educational experience. Each year the school is held in a different venue and this year it was held near Caretara de Santa Maria, to the north of Palma de Mallorca.

Speaking at the event, Rhisiart said:
"The EFAy is important, because it gives young people a channel in which to express themselves politically... The EFAy, as a political community of young Europeans, aims to represent the interests of those who believe that the 'march of a nation' towards greater autonomy, self government or even independence should not have its boundaries. EFAy members represent the future of Europe and one day I hope that we will look back and not only feel proud of what has been achieved, but that we were also part of it".

Following a racist and xenophobic attack on a young Ecuadorian woman on the underground in Barcelona on October 7 th, where the perpetrator was released without bail, a series of protests took place throughout the state of Spain this weekend, with the clear message 'Everyone Against Racism'.

The case received world wide media attention, because the whole incident was recorded on closed circuit television showing a man verbally and physically abusing a woman. Particularly disturbing was the sight of another man in the carriage, while the attack was taking place, doing nothing to help the victim.

The event was so well publicised via the internet that the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, made a complaint to the Prime Minister of Spain, Zapatero, who later condemned the assault.

Protests took place throughout the state of Spain, including in Iruña/Pamplona where the President of the EFAy, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, attended the demonstration to show his support.

In a statement to EFAy Bureau Members Rhisiart Tal-e-bot said:

"The EFAy condemns this despicable racist assault on a member of the public and racism and xenophobia per se. I hope the apparent agreement made between the Ecuadorian and Spanish Governments to deal harshly with future racist or xenophobic attacks will be strictly adhered to. However, this incident highlights the need for tougher legislation against racism."

Independence for the Basque Country was the slogan being shouted by thousands of people in Iruna/Pamplona today as Spain celebrated Dia de la Hispanidad/Hispanity Day (known as well as "Columbus Day")and Armed Forces Day.

In the Basque Country and Catalunya today, a public holiday throughout the whole of the state of Spain, is widely regarded as an Spanish ultra nationalist festival and many basques do not regard it as a holiday at all. Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, President of the EFAy, witnessed the demonstration in Iruna/Pamplona:

"There was occasionally a tense atmosphere, as many of the protesters booed the police who marched alongside the crowd, but on the whole people were in good spirits. There were people of all ages among the protesters. Nevertheless the police were out in droves and carried guns at the ready".

The protest, organized by the Eusko Abertzale Ekintza - Acción Nacionalista Vasca (EAE-ANV) (Basque Nationalist Action) political party called for the independence of the Basque Country and the release of leading members of the illegal Batasuna party who were arrested last week. Protests were also held in Donostia/San Sebastian.

The EFAy has received a response from the European Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, to their letter on the banning of incandescent light bulbs throughout Europe.

Last July the EFAy wrote to the Commissioner asking him to support the agreement made by the EU in March this year for a blanket ban on incandescent bulbs throughout the bloc. The EFAy also raised the point that the suggested 2015 deadline for a ban was too far away and that a shorter deadline was needed if Carbon Dioxide emissions were to be substantially reduced.

Commissioner Andris Piebalgs stated that "consultants carrying out the preparatory study on domestic lighting have just started their work, which can be followed up on their website www.eup4light.net." The Commissioner also highlighted that the study will examine the "entire life cycle of lamps through all their significant environmental aspects", including, as the EFAy were happy to hear, the "mercury content at the end of life".

The full text of Commissioner Piebalgs letter can be found below:
Dear Mr Tal-e-bot

Member of the European Commission

From Monday to Wednesday the yearly event organised by R&PS and coorganised by EFA and EFAY took place in Carmaux, an occitan region of an extraordinary exultant nature.

Around 130 persons participated in the event. EFA and EFAY had their turn on Tuesday morning. In a room full of people, Nelly Maes, EFA's president; Jordi Perales, EFA's political advisor; Mikel Irujo, EFA's MEP; and Michael Schulz, EFAY's Bureau member, took the floor.

They all explained EFA's policy regarding different issues:
1.- The role of the intermediate structures in the EU: regional governments, CoR, etc.
2.- How are the interests of these intermediate structures represented at the European scale.
3.- EU's internal enlargement and the speciphic EFA position on it.
4.- Michael, EFAYs representative in the Summer University, pointed out the importance of the autonomy for the regions, the right of the people to decide their future themselves, as well as the huge relevance of the european integration in a Europe that respects all the citizens and gives solutions to their needs according to their individual and collective rights.

A very interesting debate begun after their intervention with questions and absolutely pertinent comments on the issues explained before. The good environment among the participants facilitated the easy feed back of information and knowledge.

A group of around 15 youngsters from different political parties (UDB and Póc) were there too, and this event helped us all to strengthen the relationship between these organisations and EFAY.

After lunch a visit to the incredible beautiful cities of Cordes sur Ciel and Albi was organised and we finised the day with a delicious occitan dinner in the middle of the woods.

Congratulations R&PS!!
Carmaux, 27-29th August.

07/19/07
The EFAy has written to Europe’s Energy Commissioner to urge him to endorse the agreement made by EU Governments in March this year to impose a blanket ban on incandescent bulbs throughout the bloc and to draw up proposals to phase them out of use at the earliest opportunity.

In addition, the EFAy call on the Commission to impose a shorter time frame for the ban than the one proposed by European Lamp Companies Federation (ELC) in an attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions further. The use of energy saving light bulbs, as opposed to the inefficient incandescent type, could substantially reduce emissions when it is considered that lighting accounts for a vast proportion of the EU energy consumption.

However, the energy efficient light bulbs already widely in use, are not devoid of their own environmental drawbacks either. One of the components used in the bulbs is mercury and the future safe disposal of them has raised concerns in the Commission. However, the EFAy believe that at this stage the general use of the more ecological bulbs far outweighs the environmental cost of using the incandescent ones.

The full text of the letter sent to the Energy Commission is set out below:

Dear Commissioner Andris Piebalgs

Ban on incandescent light bulbs

The European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) welcomes the recent moves by the European Parliament to advocate an EU wide ban on the use of the incandescent light bulb and its replacement with energy efficient alternatives.

We now call on the European Commission to endorse the agreement made by EU Governments in March this year to impose a blanket ban on incandescent bulbs throughout the bloc and to draw up proposals to phase them out of use at the earliest opportunity. Rather than the 2015 deadline that the European Lamp Companies Federation (ELC) proposes, we believe that a shorter time frame is possible and necessary, if Carbon Dioxide emissions are to be reduced substantially.

As you will be aware Australia plan to switch to energy efficient light bulbs by 2010 and will be followed by Canada soon after. The EU also needs to impose tough legislation on the use of incandescents, considering the huge percentage of all electricity consumption that lighting accounts for in the EU. Therefore we believe that a ban on the use of incandescent light bulbs by 2010 is not unrealistic, if the Commission acts quickly enough and promotes the use of more eco-friendly bulbs through an effective marketing campaign.

Through our own organisations, we are aware that young people are enthusiastic about the idea of promoting energy efficiency, if quality of life can be maintained and the environment stands to be protected for the future. Using more energy efficient bulbs would have very little impact on the daily lives of the peoples of the EU, but would have a huge energy and environmental saving in the long term.

We would be very interested to hear your own views on this matter and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely

EFAy Bureau

07/17/07
A common question in the Alandish secession debate has been if an independent Aland would be able to sustain a Scandinavian welfare model. The question is also present in the ongoing debate on the transfer of taxationkompetence to local government. In the framework for autonomy the latter question has been endorsed by all political parties in Åland.

Last week, Alands Framtid issued a report on the budget of an independent Aland. The report is based upon a precautionary approach, as it aims to create a debate based upon facts and figures. It aims to serve as a platform for further discussion concerning Finnish dependency.

The presented report doesn't include budget optimizing functions that are available in independent states, but it does show that independence would certainly have a beneficiary impact on the local economy. Today, the division of competence has created a lack of transparency A transfer of tax competence would, according to the authors, ultimately provide new possibilities concerning core mechanisms of the local economy. However this will also incur new responsibilities for the elected officials. A separate Alandsish economy would be a significant tool to consolidate and develop important functions such as environment, structure and social welfare. It would ensure stability in economic growth in accordance with the Scandinavian model.

Finally the report shows that the final cost of independence would be 53 million Euros. However the total amount of revenues would increase from the current 293 million Euros to 333 million Euros. For further information please read:

http://www.alandsframtid.nu/images/stories/dokument/statsbudget_aland_2007.pdf
(only available in Swedish)

Andreas Dahlén

06/26/07
The European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) condemns the formation of the Cornish National Liberation Army (CNLA) in Cornwall and fully rejects the means by which it purports to fulfil its aims.

In a communication with other Bureau Members of the EFAy, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, President and Leader of Mebyon Kernow’s youth movement MKBY, stated yesterday:

“The threats issued by the CNLA have no place in Cornwall or Europe at large. A democratic society cannot be achieved by employing terrorist activity and this has been shown time and again throughout the post war history of Europe. The IRA, who the CNLA refers to in its communiqué, has laid down its arms in favour of peace and the Basque terrorist group ETA have not achieved any of its aims in almost 50 years of its bloody history. In making threats in this way, the CNLA is clearly out of touch with what people really want and what is achievable.

These threats must however be taken seriously and so must the underlying causes of the disillusionment that has led to the creation of this new group. When people feel let down by their own elected representatives, as can be seen by the recent decision by Cornwall County Council to press ahead with unitary authority status against the wishes of the population, it is inevitable that feelings will run high.

As an organisation that is representative of politically minded young people in Europe, it is our responsibility to encourage the youth to engage peacefully in the democratic process and to continue campaigning by purely peaceful means.”

The Bureau of the EFAy consists of nine representatives of political youth from throughout Europe, including the Basque Country, South Tyrol and Silesia.

The EFAy is an alliance of the youth movements of nationalist and regionalist parties throughout Europe. Although it is a pro-European organisation, the EFAY believes in a different European model to the one which is being offered at the moment. They campaign on a series of different issues including linguistic and cultural diversity, the environment, social justice and human rights.

www.efay.eu

Rhisiart Tal-e-bot

President

EFAy

rhisiart.talebot@efay.eu

Le second tour des législatives a donné la majorité absolue à l’UMP tandis que le PS a amélioré son score en remportant une cinquantaine de sièges supplémentaires. Partenaire politique des Verts, la fédération « Régions et peuples solidaires » se réjouit de l’élection des 4 députés écologistes et salue la victoire du député indépendantiste martiniquais Alfred Marie-Jeanne.

Néanmoins, « Régions et peuples solidaires » dénonce une nouvelle fois le caractère peu démocratique des élections législatives en France causé par le mode de scrutin et l’accès au financement public.

En France les députés sont élus au scrutin majoritaire à deux tours. A l’exception des législatives du 16 mars 1986, la France a toujours refusé d’appliquer l’élection à la représentation proportionnelle qui est pourtant plus juste car elle permet de représenter fidèlement les votes exprimés par les citoyens. La proportionnelle est d’ailleurs un mode de scrutin répandu en Europe : Belgique, Pays-Bas, Finlande, Espagne…Son application en France aurait permis aux Verts et aux Régionalistes d’obtenir plus de députés conformément aux choix des électeurs.

A cette injustice s’ajoute une réforme de l’accès au financement public qui pénalise directement les « petits » partis. Jusqu’en 2003, pour obtenir une aide financière publique, un parti politique devait présenter au moins cinquante candidats aux élections législatives. Depuis l’ordonnance du 8 décembre 2003, le parti n’a droit à cette aide que si « il présente 50 candidats ayant obtenu chacun au moins 1% des suffrages exprimés dans au moins cinquante circonscriptions ». De nombreux partis se retrouvent donc exclus des financements publics nécessaires à leur existence ou contraints de se fondre dans des organisations plus conséquentes.

A moyen terme , ce système aura donc pour conséquence la disparition des « petits » partis et l’instauration d’un bipartisme à l’américaine. « Régions et peuples solidaires » appelle donc les députés à agir en faveur de la proportionnelle aux élections législatives et à reconsidérer les conditions de financement des partis politiques. « Régions et peuples solidaires » rappelle au Président Sarkozy que pour être « irréprochable » , la République se doit avant tout d’être réellement « démocratique ».

Philippe Sour, chargé de communication R&PS

Contact-presse : Philippe Sour. Tel : 06 13 52 05 48 – contact@r-p-s.info

*Régions et Peuples Solidaires, fédération de partis politiques des régions historiques du territoire français, réunit le Partit Occitan, l’Union Démocratique Bretonne, Frankiz Breizh (Bretagne), le Partitu di a Nazione Corsa (Corse), Convergence Démocratique de Catalogne et Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Catalogne), le Parti Nationaliste Basque et Eusko Alkartasuna (Pays Basque), le Mouvement Région Savoie et l’Union du Peuple Alsacien. Abertzaleen Batasuna (Pays Basque) et Fer’s Elsass (Alsace)ont le statut d’observateurs.

Encouragement