The conference, which will be held under the banner; “Arab Revolutions: time for democracy and progress”, was also enthusiastically welcomed by the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle, who attended the PES Network. He stated that; “the PES initiative to host this Tunis conference is greatly welcomed. The more that European Political Representatives can show their support through concrete engagement, the more people of the region will be convinced that their struggles for democracy were worth it”.

Reflecting on the role of the European Union in the context of the revolutions in the Arab World, Mr. Stanishev said that; “it is of the utmost importance that the EU shows a stronger presence and offers more vigorous support to the countries in transition, like Tunisia and Egypt. Countries where democratic processes have been repressed by their autocratic regimes in the last couple of months, like Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain cannot be ignored. These regimes must stop using violence. The instigation of democratic reforms are a must”.

The meeting will allow representatives to foster the democratic transition process by strengthening the partnership and cooperation between European and Arab progressive forces.

Other countries in the focus of the FPN meeting were Burma, Iran, Ivory Coast, South Sudan, Belarus, Palestine and Israel. This was the third meeting of the network. The first PES Foreign Policy Network (FPN) in 2011 was successfully convened on 13th April in the PES Headquarters.

For further information please contact Brian Synnott on +32 474 98 96 75 (brian.synnott@pes.org)

The PES brings together 33 socialist, social democratic, labour and progressive parties in the European Union and Norway, a parliamentary group in the European Parliament (184 MEPs) and in the Committee of the Regions (247 members) - plus observer and associate parties and organizations from all over Europe. ECOSY and PES Women are respectively the Youth and the Women's organizations of the PES.