Quote of the week by S&D Group president, Udo Bullmann
"The world will not become a safer place with a US president who only calls for more and more military spending and alienates his closest partners. The Trumpist way of fire and fury will lead us nowhere. His fixation on a 2% or even 4% goal is short-sighted and ignorant of other essential instruments for ensuring security. The European way to global security does not only consist of spending more and more money on armies and weapons. Investing in economic, political and social development as well as promoting cooperation and diplomacy can be of equal or even greater importance. This explains why our actions are always taken in full coordination with global actors and in multilateral fora like NATO and the United Nations. Questioning or undermining these important alliances as Trump does, is what actually makes the world a more dangerous place. If we want to ensure peace and stability in Europe, we have to defend democracy, rule of law and human rights against the threat of populism and nationalism in the first place.”
Upcoming activities
A busy legislative year in the European Parliament is coming to an end and the S&D Times is off during the summer recess. However, our MEPs who will be on missions across the globe also next week. Here are some of them.
S&D vice-presidents Victor Boştinaru, Tanja Fajon, Maria João Rodrigues, Jeppe Kofod and MEPs Knut Fleckenstein and Bernd Lange will be in Washington DC from 16 to 19 July. They will discuss transatlantic relations and in particular trade, security, and development issues, with politicians and stakeholders from the US.
While US President launches trade wars and lashes out against its closest allies, the EU is forging strategic alliances with likeminded partners. On 17 July, leading S&D MEPs will welcome the signing of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. The conclusion of a series of economic partnerships with strategic allies will not only fill the vacuum left by the US, but will also strengthen EU’s role as anchor of free trade among nations.
S&D MEPs Linda McAvan, Arne Lietz and Seb Dance will head off to New York on 16 July for the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. They will discuss the state of affairs and the way forward to achieve sustainable development in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Lastly, from 15 to 19 July, our MEPs Antonio Panzeri and David Martin from the human rights committee will be on a fact-finding mission in Thailand to check on the situation in the country.
A large number of events, conferences and seminars will take place in September. We will start with the high-level conference on the introduction of a Child Guarantee at EU level to tackle child poverty.
Following a year of successful Go Local events, our MEPs will step up efforts to engage with civil society and citizens to debate and come up with new proposals for the future of Europe. The next Go Local event will be held in Carcassonne in September. More information can be found on the Europe Together website.
Summer holidays are just a step away but we are making sure that we react to external events. Our press officers and social media team will be communicating on important decisions affecting the lives of EU citizens whenever they take place.
Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter where we will react as soon as the action takes place.
Finally, we would like to thank you for your commitment throughout the year and for allowing us to guide you through the S&D parliamentary activities.
The S&D Times wishes you all nice holidays.
Rendez-vous in September when we will be back with more news on upcoming activities and the preparations for the run-up to the 2019 European elections.
