Actions to support the child guarantee, employment, housing and a more social and sustainable economy were all on the agenda of the meeting, held today in Brussels.
The SEN brought together representatives from across the PES family to reflect on progressive successes during this mandate, and to focus on what progress must be made over the next five years.
MEP Pervenche Berès, Chairwoman, said:
“We need to keep fighting to end inequality, introduce a Child Guarantee to lift children out of poverty, and ensure we have good quality, affordable, housing for everyone. We will further improve access to housing, support the renovation towards a more sustainable real estate and make sure the EU and member States invest in the creation of new housing. The new PES manifesto, adopted in Madrid on 23 February, is our party’s clear programme for the elections and beyond. We enter this campaign on a strong footing, with clear ambitions about how we intend to make Europe a more fair, free and sustainable place to live and work.”
Progressives have successfully pushed for policies in a number of areas which have improved, or will soon improve, the lives of millions of Europeans. The S&D group in the European Parliament, for example, has managed to achieve an allocation of 5.9 billion Euro for measures around the Child Guarantee. PES’s campaign for a European unemployment benefit reinsurance scheme is being supported by progressives in the Council and in the ECOFIN, and new opportunities to take this forward are on the horizon. The European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Labour Authority, the Work-Life Balance Directive, and the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive have all also seen Europe take a step in the right direction.