The workshop “a recovery plan for Europe and a new global deal” moderated by Francesco Cerasani, started with the surprise visit of P.N. Rasmussen, who reiterated his call for financial reform. “People don’t like it in Wall Street, he said, but we like it in the main street”. “Now, in the EU, we can reach an unprecedented level of financial regulation”, added Ruairi Quinn, former Finance Minister of Ireland. 

One of the two main topics that appealed to the PES activists was the financial transaction tax, which has been advocated by the left wing economists for a decade. Although the practical aspects still need to be determined, the crisis is now providing a window of opportunity to develop it. As Marije Lafebber, International secretary of Dutch PvdA, put it, “we have saved the financial sector with taxpayers’ money so now we can claim something. We need to take the momentum now.”

The second main topic concerned solidarity. As Christian Deubner, advisor to FEPS, stressed, solidarity is about sharing, at global, European and national levels. A PES activist mentioned that we should bear in mind how profoundly unequal and unsustainable our world is. Climate change, development, and immigration were at the heart of the debate. And as Maurice Braud, former secretary general of French PS, put it: “by raising these issues and opposing the right wing in the European Parliament, we can develop a new thinking in our political family”.