Rasmussen and Gusenbauer unimpressed by Mozart jolly

On the same day as the Austrian Presidency’s ‘The Sound of Europe’ event in Salzburg - Friday 27 January 2006 - the Party of European Socialists is kicking off a ‘people’s dialogue on the future policies of Europe’ with a public meeting in Dublin.

It is the first in a series of events to be held by PES member parties together making up the PES contribution to the “period of reflection” : a Socialist input to European Commissioner Wallström’s “Plan D” for democratic debate on the future of the EU.

The People’s Dialogue is a wide ranging consultation dealing first and foremost with policies that are relevant to citizens rather than with institutions. The PES wants to hear people’s concerns and hopes and find policies that the people of Europe can unite around to create a better future.

The PES ‘people’s dialogue’ ignores the elite and listens to the citizens.

Listening to Irish Labour Party members, trade unionists, ngos and other citizens will be Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the PES,  Klaus Hänsch MEP, Chair of the People’s Dialogue initiative, and Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women alongside Pat Rabitte, Leader of the Irish Labour Party and Ruairi Quinn, Irish Labour Party spokesperson on European Affairs.

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the PES, commented "The sound of Europe should be the voices of its citizens. It was ordinary citizens who voted no to the constitution, and it is ordinary citizens that Europe should be listening to, not gala Mozart concerts or intellectuals exploring the identity of Europe. People expect the EU to be making progress on the issues that matter. I believe people would vote for a Constitution of an EU that was delivering solutions to today’s problems. Instead the EU has been guilty of too much bickering, too much navel-gazing and too little action."

Alfred Gusenbauer, leader of the Austrian Social Democratic Party SPÖ, was also critical of the Salzburg event as a contribution to the period of reflection, describing it as "elitist" and "absurd theatre".

In a specially recorded  message to the People's Dialogue event in Dublin Alfred Gusenbauer said "Europe must hear citizens' opinions and find policies that the people of Europe can unite around."
 

For more information - Julian Scola, PES Press Officer, tel +32 486 117 394