PES President Sergei Stanishev said:
“Our political family has a strong ambition. We want to transform Europe, to make it fairer, more sustainable, and more democratic.
“We campaigned for pivotal change, we put it on the European Commission’s programme, and now we will implement it. At our initiative, the Social Pillar, the Just Transition, the Gender Equality Strategy, and the Child and Youth Guarantees have all been taken up by the Commission. In order to start working on all that, we need a swift agreement on the MFF at the next European Council.
“The series of conferences we are planning will bring our political family together to work on these and new initiatives to transform Europe, so our continent is able to meet the challenges of the future. These events will culminate in a Congress, where our members will endorse this progressive vision for Europe.”
The Presidency – which is made up of representatives from the PES, its full member parties and organisations – agreed priorities for the PES for 2020.
These priorities address three transitions Europe is facing – a Just Transition which leaves no one behind as we work to avert climate catastrophe, a digital transition for society and the economy, and a democratic transition focused on gender equality, anti-discrimination, citizen participation, and defence of the rule of law.