Quote of the week by S&D president, Gianni Pittella
“The future of Europe is in our hands. We see nationalism and extremism growing in many EU countries today, putting in question the basic foundations we have built with the European Union over the last 60 years. The EU is a great achievement. It allows people to travel freely, guarantees basic and fundamental rights and ensures peace on our continent. We have to stand up to defend these achievements. Europe has to become a social project again, a project that works for its people and delivers basic and decent living conditions. This will be our main task as the S&D Group to ensure that the European Union of tomorrow is a fair and social one.”
Activities
On Friday 24 March our long-awaited #EuropeTogether event will start in Rome to celebrate the signing of the Treaties of Rome and discuss ‘The Future of Europe’ with leaders, politicians and citizens. On Saturday, S&D MEPs will join the ‘March for Europe’.
Gianni Pittella: In Rome we will relaunch the European project for the people and with the people!
Alongside the Together event, we also launched the TOGETHER online platform, an extensive online consultation campaign. We look forward to receiving input and comments from you, our EU citizens. Join us now!
This week has been marked by tragedy, as we commemorated the anniversary of the Brussels attack the news came through of a new atrocity in London. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.
Pittella on anniversary of Brussels attacks: We stand united against hatred and fundamentalism
Our president Gianni Pittella expressed his support to Benoît Hamon, reaffirmed our support to the Greek people, and the S&D Group Bureau called on Dijsselbloem to resign.
In terms of legislation, we have put forward and voted in favour of responsible supply chains in the garment sector and improved protection of consumers’ rights, while pushing for strong anti-dumping instruments to tackle unfair trade competition.
We would also like to congratulate the S&D MEPs who were nominated for the 2017 MEP awards.
The S&D winners were:
- Miriam Dalli
- Theresa Griffin
- Jude Kirton-Darling
- Emilian Pavel
- Elly Schlein
- Olga Sehnalová
- István Ujhelyi
- Carlos Zorrinho
Upcoming activities
Jobs and growth are the heart of our priorities. But they should not come at the expense of social rights. We want jobs and growth to be coupled with decent work for all and social rights to flourish across the EU. This is why our MEPs are organising the S&D Seminar ‘Skills Rights for All’. The seminar will take place on Wednesday 29 March 2017 from 15h00 to 18h30 at the European Parliament in Brussels. You can register here by 12h00 on Tuesday 28 March 2017.
Our MEPs are also organising an event on the occasion of the International Roma Day: 'Remembering the Past and Vindicating Forgotten Victims' will take place on March 29 in the European Parliament. Our MEPs Soraya Post, Tanja Fajon and Brando Benifei will be joined by Roma holocaust survivors and specialists in the fight against anti-gypsyism. Registrations for the event closed on March 22, but please email: s-d.conf-integration@ep.europa.eu for more information
On 29 March Article 50 will be triggered, starting the process of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
Next week we will also begin preparing for the April plenary session in Strasbourg. Among the main subjects on the agenda are Dieselgate and the Parliament’s resolution on Brexit.
A big event we are looking forward to next month is the third edition of the 'School of Democracy'. This lively and interactive event will be back for another session in April, in Reggio Emilia in Italy, and we are looking forward to meeting 100 young democrats aged 18 to 25 from Europe and beyond in order to start a debate on the most important topics our Union is facing, both within and outside its borders.
