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Party
of European Socialists' Newsletter

20
May 2011

HOT TOPIC

PES
President deepens bonds with trade unions at ETUC Athens
Congress

The European Trade Union
Confederation (ETUC) holds its 12th Congress in Athens on
16-19 May under the title “Mobilizing for social Europe”. As
conservatives steer the EU towards an austerity path, more
than 1000 trade unionists from all over Europe have come
together to define a strategy for more employment and quality
jobs, equality and social justice.

Social
Europe

Join
the PES conference on “A Fair Growth model for Europe”
on 31 May

The Party of European
Socialists (PES) and the PES Group in the
Committee of the Regions will hold a conference
entitled “A Fair Growth model for Europe”
in Brussels on 31 May.

Economy

Finnish
Social Democrats push for solid principles on Portugal
rescue package

PES President Poul
Nyrup Rasmussen welcomed the approval of financial
assistance to Portugal by European Economic and
Finance Ministers.

During the negotiations to
find an agreement on the Portuguese rescue
package, Finnish Social Democrats took a strong
stance to ensure that Portugal would not be left
alone to face intense speculative pressure. The
agreement made the rescue of Portugal possible in
acknowledging that both European solidarity and
individual responsibility are needed to overcome
the crisis. The Social Democrats’ position in the
national Parliament, strengthened by the positive
results of last elections, tipped the scale in
favour of the approval of the bail-out. This
message of solidarity comes at a crucial time for
Europe, and acquires an even bigger meaning after
the True Finns’ attempt to spread anti-European
feelings in the country.

Re:new

Social
Democracy’ re:news’ focus in Oslo

Last week the Party of European Socialists
(PES) participated in a conference in Oslo
organised by the think tank Policy Network and
co-hosted by the Norwegian Labour Party (DNA).
Many PES Prime Ministers and leaders, including
Jens Stoltenberg, George
Papandreou, Eamon
Gilmore, Boris
Tadić, Ed Miliband and
Håkan Juholt, attended the
conference, which saw an important mobilization of
progressive forces from all over Europe, and
further afield too. Over two days Prime Ministers,
party leaders, think tanks and leading academics
debated the topic “A post-crisis agenda for
the centre-left: Securing shared
prosperity”.

Social
Europe

A
long way to go before ending homophobia

Statement by PES
and Rainbow Rose

The 17 May
marks the International
Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
(IDAHO). It is now 21 years since the World Health
Organisation removed homosexuality from the
official list of mental disorders, but respect for
fundamental rights for all, including the liberty
of sexual orientation and gender identity, is
still far from accomplished.

EDITORIAL

PES
President interview to Euractiv: "Debt 'retro-profiling'
the solution for Greece"

In a major interview with European News site
Euractiv, the PES President sets out an alternative
strategy for Greece and for a sustainable recovery from
the crisis. Introducing the concept of retro-profiling,
Mr. Rasmussen says that; “we are coming closer and
closer to the limit on using the austerity method to
clarify the loans. That’s why I'm saying that now is the
time for change and this is why we proposed a European
mechanism to put in place a re-profiling of the Greek
debt. That's the only way to go. All the alternatives
apply worse situations for Greece and a dangerous
situation for the many banks all over Europe who have
bought Greek bonds”. The interview came after the PES
President had detailed discussions with Greek Finance
Minister George Papaconstantinou on Wednesday 18 May.

News from PES members

Forthcoming events

31 May - Conference "A Fair Growth
model for Europe", co-organised by the PES and the PES
Group in the Committee of the Regions

9 June  - Coordination Team
Meeting

9 -10 June - Modernising Politics
Network

Re:new

My
PES

Economy

Social
Europe

Environment

World

PES
Women

PES

More
news

PES Women

The
European Union must continue supporting IAVIs search for an
AIDS vaccine

Article by Zita Gurmai, PES Women President

Today, on World AIDS Vaccine Day, I
would like to call the attention of European governments and
the European Commission to the need for continued support for
the search for an AIDS vaccine. In the three decades since
AIDS was first identified, this disease has had a profound
global impact. Who could have thought, 30 years ago, that HIV
virus would become one of the major pandemics in human
history?

My PES

Multumesc
PES activisti Romania

I came back from Bucharest with a lot
of hope and strong believe. It was a really big pleasure for
me to participate at the 4th General Assembly of PES activists
Romania on the 2nd weekend of May 2011 in Bucharest.

PES Women

PES
call on European Gender Commissioner to ‘get serious’ on
gender pensions gap

PES Women President Zita
Gurmai (MEP Hungary) met Viviane Reding, European
Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship,
on 3 May to discuss the socio-economic gap between
genders, and in particular the shortfall in women’s pensions.
Post meeting, PES representatives questioned the level of
commitment on the issue from Ms. Reding’s office.

World

PES
congratulates NDP’s electoral gains in Canada

For the first time in history the left
wing NDP (New Democratic Party) became the official opposition
party in Canada.