15 Priorities for Ireland's EU Presidency
8 December, 2003
Prioritising global social justice
Global Social Justice
- Initiate a Global Social Justice Agenda (Dublin Agenda) equivalent to the Lisbon Agenda whose priorities would include UN reform and fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals including cancellation of developing country debt.
- Initiate a process for human rights proofing of all EU policies.
Economic Sovereignty
• Confront the problems caused for particular Member States by the fact that some States are in and some are out of the euro-zone.
• Press for a renegotiation of the Stability and Growth Pact in order to allow member states to deal effectively with the specific problems facing their economies.
Revitalised Rural Economies
- Ensure that the CAP reform proposal agreed at Luxembourg in June 2003 is fully implemented including full decoupling; and ensure that the accession states enter the CAP on an equal basis.
- Establish a full range of complementary rural development programmes to aid farmers and rural communities in adapting to changes brought about by the CAP reforms.
- Put complete reform of the Common Fisheries Policy on the EU agenda.
Environmental Protection
- Campaign to make the EU a GM-Free Zone.
- Initiate a program for the targeted reduction of emissions on an EU- wide basis.
Social Protection
- Campaign against the EU privatisation programme in the Lisbon Agenda and for the defence of public services.
- Push for the EU-wide upwards harmonisation of workers’ rights, including trade union recognition, workers’ health and safety, and protections for temporary and migrant workers.
- Prioritise commitments to eradicate poverty and homelessness within the EU.
- Push for further EU equal rights instruments including a specific Gender Equality Directive and a Disability Directive.
- Initiate a process for equality- and poverty-proofing of all EU law and policy.
Irish Language Rights
- Ensure that Irish is recognised as an official and working language of the EU.
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