This PSOE fight back is essential because not only do the Spanish people need a strong and self-confident progressive voice but European people need a progressive Spain. Just last Monday (30 January), the Conservative dominated European Council adopted the so-called ‘fiscal compact’. This is a financial package that signs up to austerity and threatens sanctions against those who won’t. It is a set of handcuffs that will stifle investment and strangle growth. At the same time, the European Council published a vague text on ‘growth and jobs’ but all they offered was a pledge to further destroy labour market standards. As you can see, the right wing agenda in Europe is at one with the right wing agenda in Spain.
As President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) it is my job to articulate the progressive alternative – that of a genuine path for growth. The European Socialist and Social Democratic family are committed to a set of concrete financing tools to get European growth moving again. We are committed to the introduction of European project bonds, to a Euro-zone wide tax on financial transactions, to a proper use of the European Investment Bank. And we are committed to immediate use of European funds to tackle the scourge of Youth unemployment. We need to show that with our political family in charge, the European Union can again be a positive force for change.
Youth unemployment is the number one problem. It is my responsibility to remind policy makers and electorates alike that youth unemployment has reached this crisis point because of the incompetence of two and a half years of European Conservative obsession with austerity. Instead of invaluable investment, we have been force-fed the message that cuts are the only answer.
But it is also my responsibility to outline the solutions. I am proud to say that thanks to our tireless allies across Europe we have managed to put the concept of a European-wide youth “guarantee” on the political agenda. This idea, based on socialist-led national schemes in Austria and Finland, will ‘catch’ any unemployed young person after 4 months and provided them a “bridge” to employment, training or further education. It is a plan which recognises how essential it is to help people at this point. The repercussions will echo through the society. We will not rest until this plan is a cornerstone of EU legislation.
Europeans are not just suffering from the economic pain of conservative policies. They are also facing attacks on basic values of democracy. This afternoon, I will outline the battle that the PES is leading against those elements who wish to undermine European democratic standards. In Hungary the erosion of constitutional checks and balances by the Government of Viktor Orban is well documented. But we also face challenges in Romania and in my own country Bulgaria. Our European socialist family has undertaken the role of a champion of democratic standards. It is something that we are honoured to do and are in which we are sure to succeed. It is a however a disappointment that the European People’s Party (EPP), which counts PP among its members, will not join this struggle. We have been waiting for clear condemnations of the actions of the Hungarian, the Romanian and the Bulgarian Government, and still we wait.
The political choice is clear in economic terms, and in democratic terms. As a political family we are clear about the direction we want to take. A renewed European Socialism provides the concrete answers to the crisis.
