Quote of the week by President Iratxe García Pérez:
“After the pandemic, now energy prices and general price inflation is hitting both citizens and businesses. We need to reinforce our public policies and strengthen the safety network for those in need. Social Resilience should be introduced as a priority, with measures to strengthen social welfare and social protection systems in the EU, including the continuation and refinancing of SURE and a social rescue facility.
“What the Commission is proposing is not enough. I welcome that the Parliament has voted for additional funding for the European Child Guarantee, to support also Ukrainian children, and to help with the reception and labour integration of refugees. We are talking about fresh money, not reallocation of existing funds.
“To discuss all this, the European Parliament is also calling for a Social Summit. Following the Summit in Porto in May last year, we must update our strategy to adapt it to the extraordinary situation we are facing with the increasing inflation and its social consequences.”
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Follow us as we get ready for a series of events.
First stop – Palma de Mallorca in Spain. On May 26, we will be joined by PSOE, the PES, Juventudes Socialistas de España, the Young European Socialists (YES) and PSIB-PSOE to discuss ideas and challenges for Europe's younger generations. The topic of the event? Towards a fair Europe shaped by our youth.
Register now or watch live on www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu or on our Facebook page.
On June 1 we will be hosting a workshop initiated by our members in the committee of legal affairs. The discussion on Protecting journalists, NGOs and civil society against abusive lawsuits with the new Anti-SLAPP Directive will start at 14:00 in room ASP 3G3 in the European Parliament in Brussels. MEP Tiemo Wölken will be joined by Vĕra Jourová, vice-president of the European Commission for Values and Transparency (via video message), Matthew Caruana Galizia, investigative journalist and director of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation in Malta, and more. Register here to participate.
On June 4 we’ll be in Wrocław, south-west Poland, discussing A Europe of equal opportunities with youth representatives. And we won’t be alone! Joining us – European Commission first vice-president Frans Timmermans, responsible for the Green Deal, commissioner for equality Helena Dalli and former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski. Polish MPs Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, Beata Maciejewska and Krzysztof Śmiszek will be there with us, as well as S&D MEPs Robert Biedroń and Evelyn Regner. You can follow the event live on www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu and on our Facebook page.
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Next week our members will be travelling to many different destinations. Christel Schaldemose is going to the US where she is meeting a wide range of representatives of digital industry on a mission for the European Parliament’s committee on the internal market and consumer protection. No doubt the Digital Services Act, where she is the European Parliament’s chief negotiator, will be among the topics she will discuss in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
At the same time, Eider Gardiazabal Rubial will be in Turkey on a mission for the committee on budgets to see how the EU money for refugees is spent under the Facility for Refugees.
Two of our MEPs, the chair of the special European Parliament’s Covid-19 committee, Kathleen Van Brempt, and the Covid-19 committee coordinator, Sara Cerdas, will attend the World Health Assembly taking place in Geneva from May 23 to 25. The main topic is health for peace and peace for health. For the S&Ds, the main focus is on tacking health crises and negotiating the international pandemic treaty.
Our MEPs Isabel Santos and Thijs Reuten will join the AFET mission to Tirana, Albania and Podgorica, Montenegro from 23 to 26 May to express the European Parliament’s support for moving the enlargement process forward.
Spain is also on the radar of our group next with the huge problems caused by the eruption of the La Palma volcano in the Canary Islands. A mission for the committee on regional development is heading there to see the economic and social consequences for our citizens. The delegation will include our MEPs Constanze Krehl, Tsvetelina Penkova, Cristina Maestre Martín De Almagro and Marcos Ros Sempere.
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And don’t forget to stay updated on all our initiatives and reactions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
