Two Communist Party of Israel (CPI) leading members: MK Afo Agbaria and Jaber Khouri, attended the 4th Congress of the European Left held last week in Madrid. The Party of the European Left (EL) calls to radically and explicitly withstand the austerity measures imposed by the Troika, and to consider how to deal critically and provide an alternative to the payment of the debt incurred on the States by speculative banks, to guarantee  public services and to firmly reject the approval of the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.A. Together with the rejection of the future Free Trade Agreement EU-US, the European Left proposes to suspend the agreement of the European Union with Israel as the authorities of that State remain violating human rights, and also the elimination of military bases outside the EU boundaries.

Leading members of the European Left during a press conference at the end of the Congress held in Madrid (Photo: Mundo Obrero)

These proposals, raised to be integrated by the 26 organizations that make up the EL in their specific electoral programs for the European elections of May 2014, have been included in the documents that have been discussed by the 300 delegates. The political forces that make up the EL have 27 MEPs integrated into the European United Left Parliamentary Group / Nordic Green Left (GUE / NGL) out of 754, and the forecasts say that they will have a quantum leap in the elections next year.

Among the documents that have been the subject of analysis and deliberation at the Congress are the ‘Policy Paper’ of the Congress and the ‘Programmatic Platform’ presented by the organization for the elections to the European Parliament. The first has been approved by 93% of the delegates, while the latter has received the support of 86.4%.

Moreover, in its closing session, the Congress has undertaken the renovation of the Executive Board of the EL. Pierre Laurent was re-elected for another term of three years with a support of 76% of the representatives of the member parties of the organization that were present at the Congress. Also  re-elected were Maite Mola (Izquierda Unida) and Alexis Tsipras as vice presidents.  The new collegial Presidency who will be leading the EL for the next three years has also been elected. Its members are Pierre Laurent (PCF, France), who has been reelected as President, Alexis Tsipras (Syriza, Greece), Marisa Mattias (Left Block, Portugal), Maite Mola (PCE, Spain), Margarita Mileva (Bulgarian Left, Bulgaria) and the Treasurer Diether Dehm (Die Linke, Germany). Their collective work in the last three years has led to the reinforcement of the unity and actions of the EL.

In the case of leader of the Greek organization SYRIZA, the Congress of the Party of the European Left has designated Tsipras as its candidate for the presidency of the European Commission for the election to take place in 2014. In his speech to the Plenary, Alexis Tsipras, who heads the Greek opposition, urged his comrades from other international parties of the alternative left to not “miss the opportunity” that will involve the election next year in order to end with the neoliberal policies imposed from the top of the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that cause so much damage in his country and in most states of the European Union (EU).

In the approved documents the EL exposes various measures to deal with the severe economic crisis from a social and left perspective and sets as a priority the creation of employment, and the pursuit of “social, ecological and solidary” economic development. This new model of economic growth has to abandon austerity plans to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and reform the common agricultural policy to ensure food sovereignty. The ‘Policy Paper’ highlights proposals about the emancipation from financial markets in order to put the economy in the service of the people.

Related:

http://www.european-left.org/4-el-congress