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Strasbourg
in
their sights
Twenty-one Welsh Fabians are bound for Strasbourg in March, to visit the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights. They will be staying right in the middle of Strasbourg, just 500m from the main railway station - details of their Hotel and its location are shown at Hotel Monopole Metropole.
The Party will travel by train, and the first group leaving Swansea at 6.45 am, on a train sadly destined for the Great Cull of May 2003.
- "From the organiser's point of view, rail-travel is far more satisfactory," says Warren Evans, Welsh Fabian Convenor. "And for longer-distance trips, it is far better to let the train take the strain".
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning will be spent in Paris, with the party travelling onwards to Strasbourg on Sunday afternoon, on 9 March. Fabians will meet Neil Kinnock, on Tuesday morning.
This is the new logo of the Fabian Society - sharp, crisp, brisk, direct, and contemporary. The process fascinates me, by which typefaces move into and out of fashion. My hope is too that the Fabians will demonstrate the cutting-edge which this typeface implies...
- Contact The Fabian Society
2003 will be a major year for the European Union, because of the planned mid-year decision on Giscard D'Estaing's proposals for a new European Constitution. The UK Government's mid-year decision on the Euro will also be dramatic and important.
"For my part," says Warren Evans, "I would like to see consideration given to the creation of a new form of "European Community Council" at local level, enabling each local community to stay in touch with the European dimension of politics. For most countries, the commune or Gemeinde would function as its ECC network" For the UK, parish and community councils could also be so designated where they existed, and could be formed where they did not."
Each ECC would receive limited grant funding from the EU, to assist with staffing and publicity costs. "The European dimension of our public lives is undoubtedly growing in significance, but communities lack any regular means of "staying in touch" with European affairs," says Warren Evans. He argues that the network of MEPs (whose number will be reduce, following the 2004 accession of Eastern European countries), cannot handle the amount of work involved, at local level throughout Europe.
- Contact The Fabian Society