Quote of the week by S&D Group president Iratxe García:
“We have taken steps that seemed impossible for the integration of our Union, defeating those who do not believe in the European project – the extreme right and those who normalise it, such as Weber’s European People’s Party.
Let’s build a Union that is faithful to its social model and that guarantees decent jobs and a public housing stock. A Union that is more autonomous and dares to reindustrialise in order to reduce its vulnerabilities. We need a Union that taxes large fortunes, provides new common financing instruments to make the energy transition and the digital transformation a reality, and guarantees our defence. And, above all, a Union that is a beacon of reason, science, culture, human rights and coexistence among its citizens.”
Upcoming events
This Saturday, our team will be in Strasbourg celebrating Europe Days (formerly Open Days). Join us at our S&D stand. We’re ready to answer your questions, discuss the EU, take selfies, sing and share smiles and goodies. As always, children will be welcome with special games and everyone is invited to take our quizzes, to find out exactly how much they know about the European Union.
Upcoming activities
On 1 May this year, we are celebrating a double anniversary. We’re marking two decades since Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the European family in the biggest-ever enlargement of the EU.
We’re also marking a key date in our progressive calendar – Labour Day. Follow us on our socials to see how we mark these two key anniversaries.
It’s a wrap!
Dear readers,
As we complete the ninth term of the European Parliament, take a look at some of our main achievements in the video below:
We’re concluding a mandate that has marked Europe in an unprecedented way – Brexit, a pandemic, wars, foreign interference and the rise of the extreme right. It has also marked us, as a family, with the loss of our dear President David Sassoli.
It is with his memory at heart and with the wellbeing of all EU citizens in our mind that we have led (and won!) many difficult battles in Plenary.
We stand for social rights!
During this past mandate, we have delivered on the action plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights; we’ve secured new laws on adequate minimum wages for all Europeans and protection of platform workers, as well as protected children from poverty with the Child Guarantee, and fought for a ban on unpaid internships.
We stand for the people and the planet!
Our ambition this mandate has been to achieve a Green Deal with a red heart! We’ve delivered on an ambitious Climate Law to reduce CO2 emissions, a Social Climate Fund to leave no one behind, a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to level the playing field for our industries, and, despite conservative opposition, we have managed to protect and restore our biodiversity, punish environmental crimes and improve our air quality, among many other fights.
We stand for women’s rights!
Achieving equality is at the core of all our policies. This is why – since the beginning of the mandate – we have pushed for more women on company boards, pay transparency and the ratification of the Istanbul Convention to better protect women. Finally, after a decade of calls and insistent pressure and campaigning by the S&D Group, the EU will have the first-ever law to combat violence against women, including cyber violence – a solid first step to eradicate the pandemic of gender-based violence.
We stand for a fair economy for all!
A minimum effective tax rate and tax transparency for multinationals, strict rules to combat money laundering, strengthening the resilience of EU banks and greening investments are just a few of our wins during this mandate. Consumer rights have also been at the core of our priorities, and we have delivered. The right to repair is now a reality; we have a single charger for all electronic appliances; we are protecting consumers against greenwashing and early obsolescence, we’ve made sure products on the EU market are more sustainable and we have put people and their rights at the heart of Artificial Intelligence.
We stand for Rule of Law and democracy!
When everyone plays fair, everyone wins! This is why, during this mandate, we have strived to ensure that European member states respect the Rule of Law and democracy by making the delivery of EU funds depend on that. We have defended media freedom, and pushed to end abusive lawsuits against journalists and activists, and are fighting for the right of initiative of the European Parliament. And, we have delivered on a much-needed EU Ethics Body.
We stand for strengthened international solidarity!
Investing in equal partnerships and multilateralism has been our guiding principle over the past five years. We have managed to put the UN Sustainable Development Goals back on track; we have made companies take responsibility for the environmental and social impact of their production and we have placed environment, climate and human and workers’ rights at the heart of the European Union’s trade policy. We also supported reliable rules for more solidarity and shared responsibility among EU member states in migration and asylum policy.
We stand with the people during crises!
Solidarity is the answer. We have successfully implemented the Recovery and Resilience Facility to make sure we keep our economies and societies afloat in the wake of the pandemic. We’ve secured temporary unemployment schemes to help people and made good use of cohesion policy, to make sure no region is left behind. In order to have the means to secure our ambitions for Europe and its citizens, we have introduced new own resources for the EU budget, as well.
We stand with Ukraine!
And always will! Humanitarian, military and economic means have been mobilised to help our neighbouring country fight the unjustified war of aggression, but we permanently urge our member states for more support. We have successfully pushed for sanctions against Russia and the use of profits from confiscated Russian assets to help reconstruct Ukraine. And we will not stop here. We support Ukraine's reforms and aspiration to join our European family. We will fight on to boost energy security and independence from Russia, while further strengthening Europe’s Open Strategic Autonomy.
And as always don’t forget to stay updated on all our initiatives and reactions on Facebook, X, Instagram, Telegram, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and TikTok!
