News & press releases

PES Welcomes Irish YES to Equality

“This result is yet another example of what we as a Social Democratic family can do when we work together to reduce inequality” said PES President Sergei Stanishev.
Today, the people of Ireland have made history by voting YES to same sex marriage. This isn’t something that has just suddenly come about, it has happened because the Irish Labour Party campaigned for a referendum on this issue, and got a commitment to it included in their programme for Government.

PES welcomes European Commission proposal to increase Youth Guarantee pre-financing

Today the European Commission presented its proposal to increase the pre-financing rate of projects financed through the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) from around 1% to 30%. The new pre-financing rules would apply to a specific youth employment budget, which amounts to 3.2 bn Euro. The YEI supports programs to implement the European Youth Guarantee for countries with highest youth unemployment rates.

Martin Schulz pledges to fight for children’s rights as Commission President

During the financial crisis, the number of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Europe went up by almost 1 million, with an increase of around half a million in just one year between 2011 and 2012, reaching a dramatic number of 27 million. Even in Europe’s richest countries, children’s rights are not always respected – as shown in Save the Children’s new European report, “CHILD POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION – A matter of children’s rights,” launched in Brussels

Young socialists take to the streets of Paris with Martin Schulz

This afternoon in Paris, Martin Schulz engaged in some face-to-face campaign time with French voters. Schulz was accompanied by a group of energetic Parti Socialiste youth activists, who have spent the past week leafleting in the city and promoting his speech at the PS European campaign launch this evening

PES welcomes French President and Austrian Chancellor call for European Youth Guarantee funded by Financial Transaction Tax

The Party of European Socialists (PES) has strongly welcomed the calls by French President François Hollande and Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann for a European Youth Guarantee. The two leaders, meeting in Paris yesterday, have said that the funding of the Guarantee scheme could be through a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). This call follows on from the significant step yesterday (9 October) towards an FTT, as 11 Eurozone Member States agreed to push for the tax through ‘enhanced cooperation’.

The French and Austrian leaders have called for a percentage of the FTT to help establish a “fund for education” within the EU budget.
Welcoming the call, PES President Sergei Stanishev stated that; “Today’s declaration of support for a European Youth Guarantee, by President Hollande and Chancellor Faymann, is a great advance for Europe’s youth. It shows that the commitment of the Party of European Socialists (PES) to helping young people overcome the scourge of unemployment is at the highest level of importance. Advocating the use of the Financial Transaction Tax to fund this Youth Guarantee is strongly supported by the PES”.
Mr. Stanishev added that; “this announcement is a clear sign that coordination within our political family is working well, and that the PES is clearly focussed on the needs of the millions of ordinary people who have suffered from the economic crisis”.
Today’s announcement is another success for the PES campaign for a European Youth Guarantee, and follows on from the recent commitment by Irish Social Protection Minister, Joan Burton, to make the establishment of a European Youth Guarantee a priority when the Irish Government takes up the EU Presidency next year.
The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and the PES General Secretary, Achim Post, will join Chancellor Faymann at the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) conference in Vienna this Saturday (13th October).