Quote of the week by President Iratxe García on her trip to Austria:
“We are meeting in Austria as a political family to send a strong signal of the progressive Europe we want to build. We will be hosted by mayor Michael Ludwig in Vienna, where we will visit social projects and meet with civil society representatives. Led by Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the Social Democrats in Austria are fighting for stronger gender equality, for a more inclusive society, and better protection for the most vulnerable. We will discuss how to bring the bill downs so that households and businesses can afford to pay decent housing, heating and food, because more and more people have trouble making ends meet with the current crisis.”
What's coming up
On 5 - 8 December, our Group will hold a series of external meetings and events in Vienna.
During our Group mission, we will be joined by SPÖ, our Austrian sister party, in our #BringTheBillsDown campaign (details on our campaign below). We will also visit best-practice projects in social housing and sustainable urban development, a sewage treatment plant, and public transport.
On Tuesday, 6 December, from 18:30 to 20:00, we are organising an event open to the public - LGBTIQ Rights under threat.
SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner, S&D Group Leader, Iratxe García Pérez, and head of the SPÖ delegation in the European Parliament, Andreas Schieder, will hold a press conference together at 12:00 on Wednesday, 7 December 2022. The press conference can be followed online. For accreditations, please contact jakob.flossmann@ep.europa.eu.
In the afternoon, S&D MEPs will team up with trade union leaders to discuss our campaign to bring the bills down.
On Thursday, 8 December, our we will be holding a high-level progressive Western Balkans Summit. Leaders and high ranking progressive politicians from Western Balkan countries, including Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovačevski, and President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović will exchange with S&D MEPs on the state of play regarding the enlargement process. It will also be an opportunity to react to the EU-Western Balkan Summit taking place only two days earlier in Tirana. Journalists can attend the summit in person. For media enquiries on this, please contact either our press officer or the Group’s spokesperson.
All events will be streamed live on our site.
The current crisis, with crippling effects on the people’s cost of living needs to be addressed! To this end, three weeks ago, our Group has endorsed the #BringTheBillsDown campaign. Its aim? To reduce the financial burden of families and small and medium sized businesses all over Europe. Our Winter Solidarity Package brings a series of concrete solutions to cope with pertinent social and economic challenges. Read all about it here.
Next week we are anticipating good news for children’s rights and rainbow families with the Commission’s Equality Package. As part of the package, we expect the European Commission to deliver on our longstanding call for equal rights and freedoms for rainbow families. The new laws will finally mean that parenthood recognised in one EU country is recognised in all EU countries.
On Tuesday, EU finance ministers will again try to reach a deal on the issue of transposing the global deal on a 15% minimum effective tax rate for multinationals into European legislation. The Hungarian government, led by Viktor Orbán, has been blocking it for months. We urge all 27 countries to commit to what they agreed to on the international stage. Otherwise, the EU must find a way to break free from Orbán’s veto and deliver tax justice. We believe ‘enhanced cooperation’ is a good way forward to end the stalemate.
On Wednesday, the European Commission is set to present a package on customs reform, a revision of the tobacco taxation legislation as well as a package to strengthen capital markets.
On Thursday, the special European Parliament committee on Covid-19 will discuss the social and economic impact of the pandemic on children. Follow us for reactions.
Tackling forced labour is a priority for our Group. And the current labour market makes our fight more essential than ever. Check out our latest podcast on the topic - On Spotify and on Apple.
And don’t forget to stay updated on all our initiatives and reactions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and TikTok!
