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THE PARTY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS

February 2017 SOCIALISM IN EUROPE: FROM DREAM TO REALITY

THE PES IN BRIEF IL PSE IN BREVE

INSTITUTIONAL ROLES

THE ORGANISATION OF PES PES Group in the

Committee of the Regions With around 120 members, the PES Group is the second largest political group in the Committee of the Regions.

Executive

Catiuscia Marini President

Markus Töns 1° Vice-president

Albert Bore Vice-president

Snježana Bužinec Vice-president

Apostolos Katsifaras Vice-president

Olga Zrihen Vice-president

Bureau Italian members

The Bureau is composed of the PES Group Executive, the PES coordinators in the CoR commissio ns, and those presidents of the CoR commissions belonging to the PES Group.

Catiuscia Marini Luciano D'alfonso Piero Fassino

PES NETWORK

THE PSE IN THE 4 MAIN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

THE PES IN

1948-1989

"Italy's political abnormality": for over half century, the communist left (PCI) enjoyed much wider political consensus than the socialist left (PSI). In the 1980s, great aversion grew between the two parties.

1989-1993 With the fall on international communism, PCI was forced to join the European social democracy (in Italy; Partito Democratico della Sinistra - PDS). In the same period, the "Tangentopoli" case swept away PSI from the political arena. Former communists are the sole significant representatives of Italy with PSE. . 1996-2001 Thanks to an alliance ranging from liberal democrats to the catholic left, the Italian left took office in the Government for the first time in its history.

It was a time of great success and, at the same time, of strong intestine rivalry. In the meantime, D'Alema tried to enlarge the basis of PDS by founding "Democratici di sinistra" (DS) but electoral consent failed to go beyond 16%.

2007-2008

Following the paralyzing experience of the Prodi Government, the centre-left set to play the unification card. In October 2017, DS and La Margherita merged (bringing in almost equal shares) to found Partito Democratico, under the leadership of Secretary . But the moderate half of PD would not accept the affiliation of PD to the PSE and the parties stayed in the limbo for almost 7 years.

2014

Straight after his election as Secretary of PD in 2014, Renzi successfully proposed the party to join the PSE. As a result, PD became the largest member of the party both in terms of political consensus and seats in the . PD leads the European left, and especially in

the Mediterranean, in a fight for growth to win over excessive austerity.

But an internal split between moderate and radical members exists within PD. The current stage of institutional transition, that began with the defeat at the constitutional referendum, will be crucial to determine whether the party can stay united. Should PD surrender to its internal conflicts, the whole PSE would risk to split.

LEADING MEMBERS OF THE ITALIAN DELEGATION TO THE EP Italian Parties members of the PES

Gianni Pittella S&D President

David Sassoli * EP Vice-President Head of Delegation Party Secretary

Mercedes Bresso Silvia Costa ** Alessia Mosca Committee on Committee on Culture Committee on the Internal Market Committee on Riccardo Nencini Constitutional Affairs and Education and Consumer Protection International trade Party Secretary Coordinator Coordinator Coordinator Coordinator

** Vice-Chair of the IMCO Committee * Vice-Chair of the ITRE Committee

President's President's Cabinet PRESIDENT OF THE S&D GROUP AT EP Advisors

Gianni Pittella Jürgen Aschmutat

Daniele Cardella Partito Democratico Co-ordination with NGOs, trade unions, think tanks, Head of cabinet COR and CESE. General political co- Gianni Pittella was born on 19 November 1958 in Lauria, Italy. Providing strategic political ordination. He graduated in Medicine (specialising in legal and forensic advice on the following Internal management of the internal parliamentary president’s office. medicine) in 1985. His interest for a political career was innate and, activities: international trade Relations with the EP at the age of 21, he was elected to the municipal Council of his and employment and social president's cabinet and EP hometown. One year later, he became a member of the regional affairs. administration. Council of with responsibility for training, culture and Ensuring co-ordination with productive activities. Laura Pearson the Group secretary general's In charge of Group Bureau office and the Group's bodies. and heads of delegation. In 1996, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the . A member of Partito socialista italiano since 1977, he Xavier Dutrenit Annalisa Gliubizzi moved to Federazione Laburista in 1994 until 1998, when he joined Democratici di Providing strategic political Deputy head of cabinet Sinistra (1998-2007) and then Partito Democratico (since 2007). advice on the following Ensuring co-ordination with internal parliamentary the Group secretary general's activities: industry, research office and the Group's bodies His passion for Europe led him to pursue his political work at the EU level and he was and energy, transport and tourism, environment, public Providing strategic political elected to the European Parliament in 1999, joining the Group of the Party of European health and food safety, and advice on the following internal Socialists (the former name of the S&D Group). new instruments for financing parliamentary activities: EU large-scale European budgetary policy, agriculture, investments. cohesion policy and gender Re-elected to the EP in 2004, he was unanimously appointed Head of the Italian balance. delegation in the S&D Group at the European Parliament, a role that he kept until the Maria Muniz De subsequent elections in 2009. Urquiza Francesco Ronchi Elected MEP for the third time in 2009, he was Vice-President of the European Providing strategic political Deputy head of cabinet Parliament until 2014. Among his responsibilities, he was in charge of conciliations advice on the following between the European Parliament and the Council. internal parliamentary Responsible for relations with activities: foreign affairs, the PES and the national security and defence, human political parties. In October 2013, he run as a candidate at the primary elections of Partito Democratico rights and development. Co-ordination speech-writer. that marked the victory of Matteo Renzi. Providing strategic political Re-elected to the European Parliament in 2014, on 2 July of the same year he was advice on economic matters. Roxana Silvia Rizea Liaison officer for the elected President of the S&D Group, the second largest political group in the European Providing strategic political Parliament. He was acting President of the European Parliament for a short period in advice on the following president's relations with the internal parliamentary italian delegation. summer 2014 before ' re-election. activities: migration policy, extremisms and democracy, constitutional affairs, legal affairs, civil liberties, justice and home affairs.