PES Prime Ministers' meeting

13 March 2008

Combining efforts to combat climate change and to create jobs and economic growth is one common agenda for the PES said President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen at the end of today’s meeting of Socialist and Social Democratic Prime Ministers. Smart green growth is our common agenda he said.

Taking part in the discussion on European plans to create more jobs and tackle climate change were Prime Ministers Gordon Brown, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Alfred Gusenbauer, Sergei Stanishev, Robert Fico and Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy PMs Massimo D’Alema and Jean Asselborn, Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz, Europe Minister Frans Timmermans, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament Martin Schulz, Secretary General of the Council of the EU Javier Solana, and European Commissioners Margot Wallstrom and Joaquin Almunia.

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer told a press conference after the meeting that he was pleased to be focussing on the burning questions of the economy and the climate rather than on the institutional issues which had dominated recent EU summits. He added that Europe had enjoyed enormous job growth but that it could not stop here. He called for increased spending in education, more investment in infrastructure such as telecommunications as well as transport, and in green technology.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, also participating in the press conference, said that the PES had always been in the lead in implementing social and economic reform to create more jobs. He said that many things had been achieved but that even more needed to be done in the coming years.

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen told reporters that the victory of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero gave great hope of a victory for Walter Veltroni in Italy.

Photos galleries: Prime Ministers' meeting and press conference