The meeting, made up of the General Secretaries of the Social Democratic parties of Europe, is part of a wider PES debate on Progressive Societies. The PES General Secretary concluded that; “Our message is based on the rock of solidarity. To show that we are genuine about this, we have to personify our principles. To show that we are confident we have to involve, as widely as possible, all members of the social democratic family”.
The meeting heard also from former Chair of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, speaking by satellite link from America, who gave valuable insight into how to make national campaigns local. He stated that; “To show that we truly are part of the community we represent, we need to be living our shared values. That way we can make the national local, we can engage people and we can build a wide alliance”.
Andrea Nahles, Secretary General of the SPD, in Germany, gave a presentation on how her organization had renewed its structures and re-engaged with grass-root representatives. Over 1000 party branches were actively involved in this process. Participants discussed the need to reflect, in decision-making positions, the diverse profile of the PES natural constituency.
One of the highlights of the 10 month process will be the launching of a debate on the selection of a single candidate by the PES for the position of European Commission President (after the European Elections of 2014).
The PES will conduct a series of seminars on this and other issues throughout the autumn.
All the videos from the seminar
For further information please contact Brian Synnott on +32 474 98 96 75 (brian.synnott@pes.org)
