Socialists launch manifesto for EU elections

Europe’s Socialists have fired the starting gun on next year’s European parliamentary elections.

The party, whose grouping is the second biggest in the European parliament, formally launched its election manifesto at a high-level meeting in Madrid on Monday.

“Our manifesto gives voters a clear choice between the PES and our opponents,” declared Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the pan-European Party of European Socialists (PES).

The PES manifesto, called “People first: A new direction for Europe”, features 71 proposals, including a strategy for creating 10 million jobs by 2020 and new financial market regulation to help avoid a repeat of the current financial crisis.

The party also proposes emission reductions for industries such as transport and construction, a ‘pact’ on wages and a commitment to step up the fight against the trafficking of women and children.

Launching the document, Rasmussen said, “The conservatives have had a majority in Europe for the last four years. What have they done to make a fairer society?

“They have ignored the interests of ordinary hard-working families. We want to take Europe in a new direction creating a fairer society and putting people first.”
 
“Our manifesto gives voters a clear choice between the PES and our opponents. A clear choice between a progressive EU in which member states work together to tackle the economic and climate crisis for the benefit of all the people of Europe, or a conservative European Union which places our future in the hands of the market.”

“Our policies are more inclusive than the conservatives” said Rasmussen “and we do our politics in a more inclusive way too.”

The manifesto was adopted by over 232 delegates from 33 PES member parties, and over 300 grassroots activists from all over Europe, including Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero and Martine Aubry, recently elected as the new leader of the French Socialists.

EU commissioner Margot Wallström and Martin Schulz, leader of the PES group in parliament, also endorsed the manifesto.

It was drawn up following a nine-month consultation involving over 300,000 visits to a consultation website, some 120 meetings across Europe, over 500 written contributions on-line, and more than 60 formal submissions from NGOs, trade unions, foundations and member parties.

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