22/06/2007
PES Leaders support German Presidency
PES Leaders gave their strong support to the efforts of the German Presidency to find a compromise on a revised EU treaty, and restated their commitment to the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
At a PES Leaders meeting on the eve of the EU Summit, Social Democratic and Socialist party Leaders supported PES president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in calling not only for the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but also a social protocol and a protocol on energy and climate change.
They also warmly thanked German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for all his work to find agreement on a new and much-needed Constitutional Treaty.
In a press conference after the meeting, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the Party of European Socialists, urged Poland not to block an agreement, saying "To all the Polish citizens, please think of the future and not of the past. Understand that we have more in common now than we have had ever."
His words were echoed by the Leader of the Polish Democratic left Alliance Wojciech Olejniczak who criticized the Kaczynski brothers' threatening a veto. "I hope the Polish government will not stand in the way of a compromise," said the Polish Socialist leader, adding that "90% of Poles support the EU; I hope that the government will take that into account".
Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer insisted that failure to adopt a legally-binding Charter of Rights would undermine the EU's credibility, particularly when it criticized human rights in neighbouring countries such as Russia.
The meeting also approved a plan to launch a wide-ranging consultation for the PES Manifesto for the 2009 European elections. The PES will be the first European party to invite comments and discussion - via the internet and in actual physical meetings - for a common programme for the five year period 2009-13.
Taking part in the meeting included Prime Ministers José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, José Sócrates, Alfred Gusenbauer, Ferenc Gyurcsány, Sergei Stanishev and Gediminas Kirkilas; Ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Massimo D'Alema, Luís Amado, Jean Asselborn and Frans Timmermans; Party Leaders Piero Fassino (Italy), Mircea Geoana (Romania), Wojciech Olejniczak (Poland), Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Denmark), Mona Sahlin (Sweden) , Elio di Rupo (Belgium), Eero Heinaluoma (Finland), Roberto Villetti (Italy), Laszlo Kapolyi (Hungary); PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Group President Martin Schulz, Committee of the Regions President and Group President Michel Delebarre and Mercedes Bresso; and Commissioners Margot Wallström and Günter Verheugen.
See the photos
Go to the Leaders' conference page
