The Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament will join forces with our Austrian social democratic party, SPÖ, to ”Bring the Bills Down” at an external group meeting taking place in Vienna from 5 to 8 December, 2022.  As part of this campaign, the S&D Group is calling for a winter solidarity package for families and companies, as well as permanent crisis management instruments to support the labour market, cap energy prices, and reform the energy market.

SPÖ party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner will exchange with S&D members of the European Parliament on Wednesday, 7 December. In the afternoon, S&D MEPs will team up with trade union leaders to bring the bills down. On the same day, the S&D Group will also undertake fact-finding missions to visit best-practice projects in social housing and sustainable urban development, a sewage treatment plant, and public transport. S&D Group Leader Iratxe García Pérez and head of the SPÖ delegation  in the European Parliament Andreas Schieder will hold a press conference together.

LGBTIQ+ rights will be the focal point of an S&D outreach event open to the public:  “LGBTIQ Rights under threat” on Tuesday, 6 December from 18:30 - 20:00.

On 8 December we will host a high-level S&D Western Balkan Leaders Summit in Vienna. Leaders and high ranking progressive politicians from Western Balkan countries aspiring to join the EU will exchange with S&D MEPs on the state of play of the enlargement process. It will also be an opportunity to react to the EU-Western Balkan Summit taking place only two days earlier in Tirana. In Vienna, the progressive family will adopt a joint declaration of the S&D Western Balkan Leaders Summit and present it at a press point.

All events will be web-streamed here. Detailed schedules can be found on the linked event pages.

Iratxe García Pérez, group leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and MEP, said:

“We are meeting in Austria as a political family to send a strong signal of the progressive Europe we want to build. We will be hosted by mayor Michael Ludwig in Vienna, where we will visit social projects and meet with civil society representatives. Led by Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the Social Democrats in Austria are fighting for stronger gender equality, for a more inclusive society, and better protection for the most vulnerable. We will discuss how to bring the bill downs so that households and businesses can afford to pay decent housing, heating and food, because more and more people have trouble making ends meet with the current crisis.”

Andreas Schieder, head of the SPÖ delegation in the European Parliament and MEP, said:

“I am looking forward to welcome our comrades from the S&D Group - socialist and social democratic members of the European Parliament from across the EU - to Vienna in early December. Vienna, as the city with the best quality of life, is a European best practice for affordable housing, public transport and sustainable energy management. In the European Parliament we fight together for social cohesion, leaving no one behind. In Vienna we will implement this into practice. Our group meeting will send a strong progressive signal for a socially-just Europe and a European future for the Western Balkans.”