Iratxe García Pérez on her mission to Latin America:
“Over the last few days I’ve seen that the aspirations and the values of progressive governments in the region are attuned with those of European social-democracy. The governments of Gabriel Boric in Chile and Alberto Fernández in Argentina are also working for gender equality, strengthening democracy, fighting the climate emergency and reducing social inequalities. Based on this shared agenda we must build a political alliance between progressive waves both in South America and Europe to face global challenges and rebuild an international community based on strong principles and values of peace, democracy and equality.”
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Our Group is already getting ready for the upcoming plenary session. Besides the European Commission President’s State of the European Union speech, we will cover many other essential issues. Minimum wages, the Renewable Energy Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive, revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework, the dangers of deforestation and the 8th Cohesion Report are just a few of the topics on our agenda.
We are also looking forward to hearing from Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, as she will be addressing the European Parliament next session.
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Our Group president is currently on the last part of her mission to Latin America. Check out the highlights so far in Brazil here and Chile and Argentina here and follow us next week for a full wrap-up.
Starting this Sunday, our members in the committee on foreign affairs (AFET) will be on mission to Prague for the Interparliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy. On Monday morning, they will take part in a meeting gathering members from socialist and social-democrat European and national parliamentary groups from 20 countries. Follow our MEP Thijs Reuten, who will head the S&D delegation, for updates on the trip.
Also on Monday, members in the committee on legal affairs (JURI) will hold an exchange of views on an essential issue in our fight for a safer future where companies take responsibility for their actions – due diligence. Check out a video explaining where we stand and what we want:
On Wednesday, the European Commission is expected to present its care strategy. A couple of months ago already, we reiterated our call for this strategy to be ambitious and lay the foundations for a real EU Care Deal. Check out our position here and follow us for reactions.
We are also gearing up for a Global Progressive Forum webinar on Bosnia, taking place on Wednesday, 7 September. The debate is very timely as the country is getting ready for the October presidential and parliamentary elections, while it continues to struggle with many challenges, such as secession attempts, electoral reform and brain drain. We will discuss all this with our GPF co-chair Andreas Schieder, Slovenian foreign minister Tanja Fajon, Austrian justice minister Alma Zadić and the editor at Balkan Insight Srećko Latal, as well as journalist and moderator of the event Tomas Miglierina. Live on www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu.
As requested by our group, on Thursday the Parliament’s new inquiry committee investigating the use of Pegasus and other spyware (PEGA) will have an exchange of views on the latest Greek surveillance scandal. For the record - the Greek secret services tapped the phone of the leader of PASOK, our MEP Nikos Androulakis last year, while there was also an attempt to hack his phone with Predator spyware, detected by the EP services. But surprisingly, other political groups have blocked him from being invited as a speaker, which is absurd given that he is one of the main victims! Watch this space for reactions.
Also, on Thursday and Friday we will be co-hosting ETUC’s European Works Council Conference. Check out the details on the two-day event. The first day will also be webstreamed live on our site.
We will be closely following the European Central Bank meeting in Frankfurt on Thursday as another increase in the key interest rates is expected to fight the record high inflation. The next day, EU finance ministers will meet in Prague for informal discussions on this and many other pertinent topics.
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