PARTY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS

The 'Party of European Socialists' (PES) is a European political party comprising 33 national parties. Its members are social democratic, socialist and labour parties from every EU state and Norway.
The party forms the 'Socialist Group in the European Parliament' which is currently the second largest force in Parliament, it was dominant prior to the EPP-ED victory in 1999. The parliamentary group is led by Martin Schulz and the political party is led by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. He was re-elected at the 2006 PES Congress in Porto, Portugal (8th December 2006) for a term lasting until June, 2009.
PES was founded in 1992 in The Hague to succeed the ''Confederation of Socialist Parties of the European Community'' (founded in 1980). It is an associated organisation of the Socialist International. Ecosy is the youth organisation of PES. The parliamentary group has existed since 1953.^[1][2]

Contents

PES in EU institutions

Member Parties

Associate member parties

Observer parties

Notes

External links

PES in EU institutions

With 218 members the PES's Socialist Group is the second largest group in the European Parliament with 218 MEPs from 25 different European Union Member States. Group president is the German social democrat Martin Schulzwho was recently reelected for a second two and a half year term running until the next European elections in 2009. Previously, between July 2004 and January 2007, the president of the parliament was the Spanish socialist Josep Borrell.
Seven members of the European Commission are members of the PES: Vice president Günter Verheugen (SPD), vice president Margot Wallström (SAP), Commissioner for monetary affairs Joaquín Almunia (PSOE), commissioner for regional policy Danuta Hübner (SLD), commissioner for taxation László Kovács (MSZP), commissioner for trade Peter Mandelson (Labour) and commissioner for employment and social affairs Vladimír Špidla (ČSSD).
PES members in the European Council are Gordon Brown (United Kingdom), Alfred Gusenbauer (Austria), Gediminas Kirkilas (Lithuania), Ferenc Gyurcsány (Hungary), José Sócrates (Portugal) and José Luis Zapatero (Spain).

Member Parties

With 33 members it is the only political party to have a member from every EU state, although not all of them have elected MEPs (note: the EPP-ED is the only group to have elected MEPs from every country, but is not a single party).^[3]

	Name (original language)	Name (translation)	abbr.	MEPs
	Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs	Social Democratic Party of Austria	SPÖ	7
(Flanders)	Socialistische Partij Anders	Socialist Party - Different	sp.a	3
(Wallonia)	Parti Socialiste	Socialist Party	PS	4
	Българска социалистическа партия Bălgarska Socialističeska Partija	Bulgarian Socialist Party	BSP	5
	Κίνημα Σοσιαλδημοκρατών Kínima Sosialdimokratón	Movement for Social Democracy	EDEK
	Česká strana sociálně demokratická	Czech Social Democratic Party	ČSSD	2
	Socialdemokraterne	Social Democrats		5
	Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond	Social Democratic Party	SDE	3
	Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue	Social Democratic Party of Finland	SDP	3
	Parti Socialiste	Socialist Party	PS	31
	Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands	Social Democratic Party of Germany	SPD	23
	Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima	Panhellenic Socialist Movement	PASOK	8
	Magyar Szocialista Párt	Hungarian Socialist Party	MSZP	9
	Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt	Social Democratic Party of Hungary	MSZDP
	Labour Party		Labour	1
	Democratici di Sinistra	Democrats of the Left	DS	12
	Socialisti Democratici Italiani	Italian Social Democrats	SDI	1
	Latvijas Sociāldemokrātiskā Strādnieku Partija	Social Democratic Workers' Party of Latvia	LSDSP
	Lietuvos Socialdemokratų Partija	Social Democratic Party of Lithuania	LSDP	2
	Lëtzebuerger Sozialistesch Arbechterpartei Parti Ouvrier Socialiste Luxembourgeois	Socialist Workers' Party of Luxembourg	LSAP	1
	Partit Laburista	Malta Labour Party	MLP	3
	Partij van de Arbeid	Labour Party	PvdA	7
	Det norske Arbeiderparti (Arbeiderpartiet)	Norwegian Labour Party	DnA	Non EU
	Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej	Democratic Left Alliance	SLD	5
	Unia Pracy	Labour Union	UP
	Partido Socialista	Socialist Party	PS	12
	Partidul Social Democrat	Social Democratic Party	PSD	12
	Smer – sociálna demokracia[4]	Direction - social democracy		3
	Socialni demokrati	Social Democrats	SD	1
	Partido Socialista Obrero Español	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party	PSOE	24
	Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti (Socialdemokraterna)	Social Democratic Workers' Party of Sweden	S	5
	Labour Party		Labour	19
	Social Democratic and Labour Party		SDLP

In addition, one independent Italian MEP of the l’Ulivo, both MEPs of Italia dei Valori, the 3 MEPs of the newly-founded Polish party Socjaldemokracja Polska, 1 MEPs of the Polish Samoobrona, and 1 MEP of Partija Balgarski Socialdemokrati are also members of the PES group.

Associate member parties

★ Bulgaria: Партия Български социалдемократи / Partija Balgarski Socialdemokrati (PBS)

★ Croatia: Socijaldemokratska Partija Hrvatske (SDP)

★ Republic of Macedonia: Социјалдемократски Сојуз на Македонија / Socijaldemokratski Sojuz na Makedonija (SDSM)

★ Switzerland: Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz (SP) / Parti socialiste suisse (PS)

★ Turkey: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP)

★ Turkey: Demokratik Toplum Partisi (DTP)

Observer parties

★ Andorra: Partit Socialdemòcrata (PS)

★ Bosnia and Herzegovina: Socijaldemokratska Partija BiH

★ Iceland: Samfylkingin (S)

★ Israel: העבודה / Avoda

★ Israel: מרצ-יחד / Meretz-Yachad

★ San Marino: Partito dei Socialisti e dei Democratici (PSD)

★ Serbia: Demokratska stranka (DS)

Notes

1. How does PES work? pes.org
2. History socialistgroup.org
3. PES Members
4. Membership suspended since 12 October 2006 due to Smer's coalition with the ultra-nationalist Slovenská národná strana.

External links

★ Party of European Socialists

★ Parliamentary Group of the Party of European Socialists