Avainsana: EU

Julkaistu

Om Europeiska Unionens sociala dimension – artikel i tidningen Eläkkeensaaja sommaren 2018

Finland är bäst I världen säger den ena internationella studien efter den andra. Nöjda och belåtna nickar vi, åtminstone litet grann överlägsna.  Men är det så på riktigt?

Har vi inte något att ta efter de andra EU-länderna. Är det bara frihandeln  och kapitalets rörlighet som är viktigt, och så lantbruksstödet naturligtvis? Och försvarspolitiken?

Nästan en av fem unga människor i Europeiska Unionen är utan jobb. I centrala Östeuropa växer missnöjet. Invandrarna har svårt att integreras i sina nya samhällen. Extrema attityder sprider sig, motsättningarna ökar och gemenskapen försvagas. Ute i världen anges tonen av auktoritära ledare som Trump, Putin och Erdogan.

Nu behövs EU mer än någonsin för att befrämja demokrati, fred och internationellt samarbete.

Europeerna måste sluta upp kring gemenskapen. Det här går bara om EU finns till för människorna i Europa, inte bara för företagen och kapitalägarna.

Redan när den europeiska ekonomiska gemenskapen EEC kom till för 60 år insåg man det här. Tullar och andra handelshinder skulle bort, men också medborgarna måste få sin del av fördelarna. Lantbruksstödet kom snabbt till, och sociala mål skrevs in i EEC:s grundavtal, Rom-fördraget.

Sedan hände inte så mycket annat.

Det var den franska socialdemokraten Jacques Delors som drev igenom en social dimension när han blev den Europeiska kommissionens ordförande år 1985. Då höll Margaret Thatcher i Storbritannien och Ronald Reagan i USA på med att köra ner välfärdssamhället och attackera de fackliga organisationerna. Ändå lyckades Delors föra in välfärdsfrågor på den europeiska agendan och få till stånd en genuin socialdialog mellan arbetsgivarna och facket.   

Under 1990-talet nådde man sedan viktiga resultat, både centralt och inom enskilda branscher. Arbetslivets parter avtalade om deltids- och visstidsarbete, föräldraledighet och distansarbete. Resultaten verkställdes sedan genom europeiska direktiv.

Men sen var det slut igen. Arbetsgivarna var ovilliga att förhandla på riktigt eftersom den politiska och ekonomiska utvecklingen spelade dem i händerna i alla fall. José Manuel Barrosos konservativa EU-kommission gjorde inte heller mycket för att trycka på.

När Jean-Claude Juncker blev kommissionens ordförande år 2014 drev han igenom en ny start för den europeiska socialdialogen. Den moderat konservativa Juncker insåg att de sociala frågorna måste ges en mycket större roll om EU skall kunna hålla ihop och klara av sina enorma utmaningar. Han fick en viktig allierad i Sveriges statsminister Stefan Löfven.

Vid toppmötet i Göteborg i november 2017 skrev man under en ”social pelare” med 20 punkter för mer rättvisa arbets- och sociala villkor och högre levnadsstandard. Samtidigt gav man facket en klar och framträdande roll i beredningen av dessa EU-frågor.

Finland då? Vi har en regering som är fullt sysselsatt med att riva ner den offentliga välfärden och dra mattan under facket, med aktivt stöd från näringslivets organisationer. Den europeiska sociala dimensionen existerar inte i deras tankevärld. 

Det är viktigt för arbetarrörelsen att slå vakt om ett nära samarbete mellan Finland och Sverige för att försvara den nordiska välfärdsmodellen. De framsteg som har gjorts inom EU och den svenska socialdemokratins aktiva roll borde uppmuntra också oss här i Finland.

Julkaistu

War veterans village in Finland received the European Broadband Award 2017

A small village built by war veterans and their families in the 1940s brought home the European Broadband Award 2017. The prize was awarded by three European Commissioners jointly, at a European Union conference and ceremony on 20-21 November. The ”Helsinki Optical Fibre Cooperative” had entered into one of five competition categories, ”Openness and competition”. This was the first time that a Finnish communications network scored the top position.

The broadband network reaches out to most of the almost two hundred family houses in the Marttila Village. 

The First Prize at Brussels airport on its way home to the Marttila village in Pitäjänmäki, Helsinki, Finland.

The EU aim is that ”by 2020, all Union citizens have access to much higher internet speeds of above 30 Mbps and 50 % or more Union households subscribe to internet connections above 100 Mbps.” In Marttila we have already come much further.

The large majority of the 100 plus mainly single family houses in Marttila are connected through a fast and high capacity optical fiber network. It offers symmetric speeds between 100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. Even higher speeds are possible, and have been tested.

To choose optical fiber instead of relying on wireless connections through one or another of the big telecom operators was clear for us from the beginning. As the mobile phone networks get increasingly congested, which is already happening here in Helsinki at times, connections slow down and become much less reliable.

The connection that I use now is through Telia and gives me speeds clearly above the 100 Mbit/s. The upload speeds that always tend to be much lower are identical to downloads which is a major benefit. Optical fiber is the only sustainable solution that carries far into the foreseeable future.

Much of the work was done by the Marttila village residents themselves.

We also wanted to own and control our own communications. Therefore our cooperative brings four fibers to each home instead of the single one that operator-owned and managed nets do. Multiple telecom operators, large and small, compete and sell their internet services directly to our members using our network.

One of the reasons that we started to build ourselves was the lack of interest by both public and private operators. Government focus is on rural areas and they clearly want urban regions to be built up by commercial actors. The commercial telecom operators are not interested in neighbourhoods like ours which from their point of view are too sparsely populated .

Our village network is the first of its kind in an urban area. It has already inspired followers and other cooperatives have been formed in different parts of the country. We have proved that not only big multinational businesses can build and own communications networks, but also grass-root users themselves.

Of course we were lucky to have some really skilled villagers who were committed to managing and implementing the project with us others. There was a great amount of unpaid voluntary work that made this network accessible for residents. It has contributed much also to the togetherness across the many generations who live in this green oasis in the middle of a large metropolitan area – well it is much more snow-white in the winter…

Jan Furstenborg, member of the Helsinki Optical Fibre Cooperative Board.

Julkaistu

Frontmannaby i Helsingfors vann EU-pris för sitt datanät

Europeiska bredbandspriset 2017


En frontmannaby i Sockenbacka i Helsingfors har fått EU:s stora Bredbandspris 2017, i en av fem tävlingskategorier. Priset tilldelades för ett snabbt fibernät som förenar över hundra egnahemshus i området, och som är öppet för priskonkurrens mellan teleoperatörer. 

Vid en ceremoni på en Europeisk datakonferens i Bryssel i början av veckan (20-21.11.) överräckte tre EU-komissionsmedlemmar tillsammans priset till data-aktivisterna från Helsingfors.

Det lilla Sockenbacka-kooperativet väckte positiv uppmärksamhet för både sin initiativrikedom och det goda projektresultatet. Med fyra fibrer till varje hushåll och mycket snabba dataförbindelser är nätet redan nu långt över de mål som EU har ställt upp för de kommande åren.

De flesta övriga deltagarna i tävlingen var ministerier eller privata storföretag. Projekten var ofta EU-finansierade och datatjänsterna begränsade till en teleoperatör. Det finländska kooperativet är däremot helt finansierat av invånarna själva. Kostnaderna har hållits nere genom ett omfattande frivilligarbete både inom projektledning och nätverksbygge. 

Det prestigefyllda bredbandspriset – European Broadband Awards – tilldelas vartannat år till de fem bästa projekten i medlemsländerna. De två andra finalisterna i sockenbackabornas kategori var Ungerns utvecklingsministerium och en stor irländsk teleoperatör, båda med internationellt finansierade jätteprojekt. fff

Julkaistu

Helsinkiläisen rintamamieskylän laajakaista-aktivistit voittivat EU-palkinnon


Euroopan Unionin laajakaistapalkinto 2017

Marttilan kylä Helsingin Pitäjänmäellä on voittanut Euroopan Unionin suuren Laajakaistapalkinnon 2017. Ensimmäisenä suomalaisena tietoliikennehankkeena kyläläisten itse rakentama nopea kuituverkko voitti yhden viidestä viidestä kilpailusarjasta.

Brysselissä alkuviikolla (20-21.11.) pidetyssä suuressa laajakaistakonferenssissa luovuttivat kolme Euroopan Komission jäsentä yhdessä ensimmäisen  palkinnon pitäjänmäkeläisille aktivisteille.

Pieni helsinkiläinen osuuskunta herätti omatoimisuudellaan ja projektinsa toteutuksella erityistä huomiota kilvassa jossa muut osanottajat olivat yleensä joko ministeriöitä tai monikansallisia toimijoita. Monet näistä 

Rintamamieskylään rakennettu nopea valokuituverkko kattaa toistasataa kotia ja on myös tekniseltä suorituskyvyltään ylivoimainen verrattaessa jopa EU:n asettamiin lähivuosien kehitystavoittaisiin.

Arvostettu laajakaistapalkinto – European Broadband Awards – kilpailutetaan joka toinen vuosi EU:n jäsenmaissa toteutettujen projektien kesken. Osuuskunta Helsingin Valokuidut oli ilmoittautunut kilpailukategoriaan jossa edellytettiin avoimen kilpailun edistämistä palveluntarjoajien kesken.

Loppusuoralla Marttilan kylän tietoverkon kanssa finalisteina kilpailivat unkarilainen ministeriö ja suuri irlantilainen tietoliikkenneyritys.

Julkaistu

Unhappy with wireless connections Helsinki Finland neighbourhood built its own super-fast fiber network

The resident-owner cooperative fibre network in the Marttila village in Helsinki has been built by residents themselves at their own expense without any public support from Finland or the European Union.
Laying the cable on a rainy autumn day in Marttila, in its protective tube. Four fibres reach every participating home and the network is resident owned. This means that there will always be competition between service providers instead of a local monopoly which is the usual situation.
  1. When I write this, the European Parliament is discussing EU support to internet connectivity in rural areas. This is good and important.
  2. The aim is that ”by 2020, all Union citizens have access to much higher internet speeds of above 30 Mbps and 50 % or more Union households subscribe to internet connections above 100 Mbps.”
  3. In Marttila – my small village in Finnish Capital Helsinki – we have already reached this, and indeed even more. This has been done entirely at our own expense, without any outside support. Much of the work has been contributed by villagers on a voluntary non-paid basis.
  4. The cooperative owned Marttila network is not large by any measure, and the homes in the village are pretty modest. They were built on city owned land in the late 1940s, by and for war veterans.
  5. The large majority of the 100 plus mainly single family houses in Marttila are now connected through a fast and high capacity optical fiber network. It offers symmetric speeds between 100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. Even higher speeds are possible, and have been tested. I doubt that many would have opted for the few lower speed alternatives that are available…
  6. To choose optical fiber instead of relying on wireless connections through one or another of the big telecom operators was clear for us from the beginning. As the mobile phone networks get increasingly congested, which is already happening here in Helsinki at times, connections slow down and become much less reliable.
  7. The connection that I use now is through Telia and gives me speeds clearly above the 100 Mbit/s. The upload speeds that always tend to be much lower are identical to the downloads which is a major benefit. Imagine the improvement for a friend of mine here who is a graphical artist and who now can be sure that hid works rapidly fly off to their destination without having to slowly grind for ages. So, optical fiber is the only sustainable solution that carries far into the foreseeable future.
  8. We also wanted to own and control our own communications. This is now reality as our cooperative brings four fibers to each home instead of the single one that operator-owned and managed nets do. Multiple telecom operators, large and small, sell their internet services directly to our members over our network that connects to theirs.
  9. One of the reasons that we started to build ourselves was the lack of interest from others to do anything here. The European Union or the Finnish government focus on rural areas and want urban regions to be built up by commercial actors. The telecom operators on their side are uninterested as neighbourhoods like this are sparsely populated from their point of view.
  10. The village network is interesting also as it is the first of its kind in an urban area. Today it proves that not only big multinational businesses can build these networks but also grass-root users themselves.
  11. Ok, of course we were lucky to have some really skilled neighbours who were committed to the project and who have done a great unpaid voluntary work for us all. Great contribution also to the togetherness across the many generations who live in this green oasis – ok it is much more snow-white in the winter…
Julkaistu

Time for Europe to resolve the Greek debt issue


Time to resolve the Greek debt issue!

The rather disrespectful language and misguided statements that soured early stages of discussions and negotiations have of course not been helpful for building confidence. Now the tone seems to be changing and attention shift to seeking concrete solutions. This is how it should be.

We have seen that Germany’s social democrats believe that the latest proposal from Athens gives a good basis for this. They also distance themselves from the most hardline conservative opinions. Vice Chancellor and SPD President Sigmar Gabriel has said this clearly.

Europe’s other social democratic movements, including in my own country Finland, should join in working for an end to the yes-no debate, together with moderate conservatives and others. I am sure that this will happen.

It is not always easy for people in the Eurozone countries to accept added liabilities when they themselves are squeezed by recession and unemployment. In Finland, also the decline of the Russian Rouble and the mutual sanctions hit hard on economy and employment and add to the strains.

The new Greek government’s declared commitment to respect its obligations and to build up a sound economic administration and taxation was both necessary and welcome with a view of seeking political acceptance among these voters for a final agreement.

Others must now also understand that changes are needed in Greece itself to alleviate the situation of those who are the weakest and most badly hit while supporting the growth that is necessary for the longer term building up of the economy.

The economic dimension is of course highly important for the Eurozone tax payers who are backing up the recovery programme, but let us not forget that the European Union is about much more.

Already a look at the map of Europe should convince anyone about the importance of a stable and democratic Greece in the south-east where the political and social situation is far from settled.

Together with the Nordic ties it defines also Finland’s place in the world. For many of us this was the key reason when we voted for EU membership. Today we need to strengthen the community, not weaken it.