Brussels Labour

Welcome to the website

Welcome to the homepage of Brussels Labour, the branch of the UK Labour Party in the capital of Belgium and city of the EU institutions.

The Branch runs an active programme of speaker meetings and social events - so get involved!

The Honorary President of Brussels Labour is Neil Kinnock, formerly Vice-President of the European Commission and Leader of the Labour Party.

Future Events - Spring 2010

The Annual General Meeting will be on Wednesday 14 April from 19.30. Commission Vice President Joaquin Almunia will be guest speaker.

We are planning a two UK campaigning weekends. The first, on 17-18 April - will be to a London constituency (details to be confirmed): for this please make your own transport arrangements.

The second will be 1-2 May to Hastings and Rye. Here we plan to coordinate transport.

Please let the secretary know (secretary@brusselslabour.org) asap if you would like to join us for either weekend, so we can confirm arrangements.

On both weekends, we are already in touch with the consituencies, and plan to campaign both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. You will need to cover your own travel and accomodation costs.

New acting secretary

Sarah Millar, our Secretary, has left Brussels to take up a post in the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change: their gain and our loss! We are delighted for Sarah and wish her every success as well as thanking her for her dedication to Brussels Labour.

Her replacement will be elected at the AGM and, until then, Emma Eatwell will be the acting secretary. Any mail can be sent to her on secretary@brusselslabour.org

Germinal

The October 2009 edition of our newsletter is now available on line here. Click here For previous editions. And here is a preview of three articles for the next edition:

The German SPD- After the Federal Elections 2009 - by Frank Michlich from the Brussels SPD Branch

Standing in the Brussels Regional Elections 2009 - by Yonnec Poulet

The Sp.A (Flemish Social Democrats) Convention 2009 - by Belinda Pyke

The Party of European Socialists - PES

The PES is probably of particular interest to members of Brussels Labour.

Individual members of Europe’s Socialist, Social Democratic and Labour Parties - and thus of Brussels Labour - are all members of the PES through their national party membership. They can now become directly involved in the PES by becoming PES activist. This important decision was taken at the PES Council in Vienna in June 2005 with full support of the member parties.

Being PES activist offers a new level of involvement for members, complementary to that on local, regional or national level.

Activists can ask questions directly to politicians, take part in discussions with other European socialists and social democrats on a variety of topics, give input on PES policy discussions, establish political links with local individuals and branches in other PES member parties, receive information on what other European socialists and social democrats are up.

In addition, there are opportunities to attend events such as the PES Congress and Summer University.

Go to www.pes.org for more details on how to become a PES activist - and also for information on PES events and activities.

Past Events 2010

We were very pleased to welcome UK Trade Commissioner Baronness Cathy Ashton to speak at our meeting on November 10.

The annual John Fitzmaurice Leture was given on 14 October at the Centre by ETUC President John Monks. A full report will appear in Germinal, but click here for the text of his speach.

Brussels Labour again hosted a fringe meeting with EPLP at Labour Party conference. Chaired by Brussels Labour honorary President Lord Kinnock, on the subject of "Trade and Aid - European responses to global poverty", it should be a fascinating debate. Speakers were European Commissioner for Trade, Cathy Ashton, Europe Minister Glennys Kinnock and Michael Cashman MEP - or three peers and a queer, in Michael's memorable description of the panel!

September 9. We had a speaker from the Irish Labour Party on the forthcomming Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

June 2 - we welcomed Labour's new MEP, Derek Vaughan, as speaker. He gave his thoughts on the election campaign, and his hopes for his first term.

May 27 - European Election campaign leafletting

April 29 - Joint hustings with Brussels Liberal and Conservative associations - Brussels Labour was ably represented by Richard Corbett MEP

The Brussels Labour Exec was invited to a brief private meeting with Harriet Harmann whilst she was over to meet the EPLP in February - read more here