S

February 2017

THE PARTY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS

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

¾ Catiuscia Marini President ¾ Markus Töns 1° Vice-president ¾ Albert Bore Vice-president ¾ Snježana Bužinec Vice-president ¾ Apostolos Katsifaras Vice-president

¾ Olga Zrihen Vice-president

Bureau Italian members

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

¾ Catiuscia Marini ¾ Luciano D'alfonso ¾ Piero Fassino

PES NETWORK

THE PSE IN THE 4 MAIN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

THE PES IN ITALY

"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.

1948-1989

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 Walter Veltroni. 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 European Parliament. 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.

Riccardo Nencini Party Secretary

Matteo Renzi Party Secretary

Italian Parties members of the PES

Gianni Pittella S&D President

David Sassoli EP Vice-President

Patrizia Toia* Head of Delegation

Mercedes Bresso Committee on

Constitutional Affairs Coordinator

Silvia Costa Committee on Culture

and Education Coordinator

Nicola Danti** Committee on the Internal Market

and Consumer Protection Coordinator

Alessia Mosca Committee on

International trade Coordinator

** Vice-Chair of the IMCO Committee

LEADING MEMBERS OF THE ITALIAN DELEGATION TO THE EP

* Vice-Chair of the ITRE Committee

Gianni Pittella was born on 19 November 1958 in Lauria, Italy. He graduated in Medicine (specialising in legal and forensic medicine) in 1985. His interest for a political career was innate and, at the age of 21, he was elected to the municipal Council of his hometown. One year later, he became a member of the regional Council of Basilicata with responsibility for training, culture and productive activities. In 1996, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. A member of Partito socialista italiano since 1977, he

moved to Federazione Laburista in 1994 until 1998, when he joined Democratici di Sinistra (1998-2007) and then Partito Democratico (since 2007). His passion for Europe led him to pursue his political work at the EU level and he was elected to the European Parliament in 1999, joining the Group of the Party of European Socialists (the former name of the S&D Group). Re-elected to the EP in 2004, he was unanimously appointed Head of the Italian delegation in the S&D Group at the European Parliament, a role that he kept until the subsequent elections in 2009. Elected MEP for the third time in 2009, he was Vice-President of the European Parliament until 2014. Among his responsibilities, he was in charge of conciliations between the European Parliament and the Council. In October 2013, he run as a candidate at the primary elections of Partito Democratico that marked the victory of Matteo Renzi. Re-elected to the European Parliament in 2014, on 2 July of the same year he was elected President of the S&D Group, the second largest political group in the European Parliament. He was acting President of the European Parliament for a short period in summer 2014 before Martin Schulz' re-election.

PRESIDENT OF THE S&D GROUP AT EP

Gianni Pittella Partito Democratico

¾ Daniele Cardella x Head of cabinet

General political co-ordination.

x Internal management of the president’s office.

x Relations with the EP president's cabinet and EP administration.

x Ensuring co-ordination with the Group secretary general's office and the Group's bodies.

¾ Annalisa Gliubizzi Deputy head of cabinet x Ensuring co-ordination with the Group secretary general's office and the Group's bodies x Providing strategic political advice on the following internal parliamentary activities: EU budgetary policy, agriculture, cohesion policy and gender balance.

¾ Francesco Ronchi Deputy head of cabinet x Responsible for relations with the PES and the national political parties. x Co-ordination speech-writer.

x Providing strategic political advice on economic matters. x Liaison officer for the president's relations with the italian delegation.

¾ Jürgen Aschmutat x Co-ordination with NGOs,

trade unions, think tanks, COR and CESE.

x Providing strategic political advice on the following internal parliamentary activities: international trade and employment and social affairs.

¾ Laura Pearson x In charge of Group Bureau

and heads of delegation.

¾ Xavier Dutrenit x Providing strategic political

advice on the following internal parliamentary activities: industry, research and energy, transport and tourism, environment, public health and food safety, and new instruments for financing large-scale European investments.

¾ Maria Muniz De

Urquiza x Providing strategic political

advice on the following internal parliamentary activities: foreign affairs, security and defence, human rights and development.

¾ Roxana Silvia Rizea x Providing strategic political

advice on the following internal parliamentary activities: migration policy, extremisms and democracy, constitutional affairs, legal affairs, civil liberties, justice and home affairs.

President's Advisors

President's Cabinet