The European Ministers from the Party of European Socialists have met in Brussels on 20^th September to prepare for the General Affairs Council meeting and to follow up on the outcome of last week’s Bratislava Summit of the EU head of states.

The French European Minister and Chair of the PES GAC Ministers’ Network, Harlem Désir, commented after the meeting: "Europe needs to become more progressive and more social. There is increasing need to improve coherence of European polices in the areas of migration, social and economic policy. We have to find a better balance between these policies to achieve better outcomes for our citizens. We have been working towards this direction, the Bratislava Summit was an important step forward, now we have to focus on delivering on our core objectives: the European youth plan, sustainable growth and employment, and peace and security. We must promote a strong social dimension, continuing to properly funding the Youth Guarantee, with 20 bn Euro (as proposed by Matteo Renzi, and Francois Hollande) until 2020, taking bold steps towards resolving the migration crisis both at EU and International level. To this extent the discussion taking place at the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants should be very constructive.

We remain confident that with our consistent progressive agenda, we can face the challenges that lay ahead of the European integration also in these more difficult circumstance."

The meeting was also attended by Michael Roth, Minister of State for Europe, Germany, Ian Borg, Parliamentary Secretary for EU funds and 2017 Presidency, Malta, Margarida Marques, State Secretary for European Affairs, Portugal, Ann Linde, Minister for EU Affairs and Trade, Sweden, Enrique Guerrero Salom, Vice President of the S&D Group in the European Parliament, Nikos Xydakis, Alternate Minister for European Affairs, (SYRIZA, Greece, observer), Theodoros Papatheodorou, Member of Parliament, (PASOK, Greece, observer), Yonnec Polet, Deputy Secretary General, PES.  

 
Photos of the meeting here.