The Party of European Socialists offers a programme for a progressive European Union that puts first the concerns of people. We pledge ourselves to work throughout the Europe Union to ensure that all citizens, in both the existing and the new Member States, benefit from EU enlargement.

We give voters five key commitments for the European Parliament’s next five-year term:

• Boost Europe’s growth, fight poverty and create more and better jobs

• Bring the European Union closer to its citizens

• Manage migration and pursue social integration

• Build a more secure, sustainable, peaceful and just world

• Promote Europe as an area of democracy and equality

Boost Europe’s growth, fight poverty and create more and better jobs

Social democrats drew up the first EU action plan for economic and social reform, adopted in its Lisbon Strategy four years ago as developed in Gothenburg, to make the EU the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustained economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by 2010.

Now we want to give fresh impetus to this strategy. Our work programme, ‘Momentum for recovery in Europe promoting public and private investments’, proposes a detailed strategy to create more new high-quality jobs by promoting greater investment in research and technology, supporting new growth sectors and reinforcing modern education, training and lifelong learning.

We aim to:

• Target EU funds on job creation.

• Strengthen the European Social Model and defend trade union rights.

• Develop a European monetary policy that promotes growth, sustainabledevelopment and employment in a social market economy.

• Ensure affordable, accessible and high-quality public services.

• Increase the participation rate of women and remove barriers that prevent women from taking up jobs.

• Introduce measures to help women and men achieve a better balance between working life and family commitments.

Bring the European Union closer to

its citizens

The European Union must ensure not only that citizens benefit from its actions but also that they are involved in its decisions. At the same time, in line with the subsidiarity principle, the EU should not act when national or regional bodies are better placed to do so.

During the negotiations of the Convention on the Future of Europe, European Socialists played a key role in shaping the draft Constitution and ensured that it included key values and rights. When finalised and ratified, the European Constitution must make the EU institutions more transparent, accountable and relevant to citizens. It must enable their decisions to be more democratic and efficient. It must also help the European Union to speak with a clear and strong voice on the world stage. A Constitution is crucial to the success of an enlarged EU. Its adoption should, therefore, be a priority for European governments.

We aim to:

• Adopt a European Constitution that brings the EU closer to its citizens.

• Give the highest priority to the fight against terrorism by ensuring effective coordination of the judiciary, police and intelligence agencies.

• Improve access to information technology and aim to provide broadband internet access for all citizens by 2012.

• Strengthen accountable European police cooperation through Europol to step up the fight against cross-border crime, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Manage migration and pursue social integration

We want active, firm and just management of migration and integration. We recognise the positive contribution of legal migrants and support a multicultural and tolerant society. At the same time, we must tackle illegal immigration and crack down on human trafficking and exploitation.

We vehemently oppose racism and xenophobia wherever it is found. We oppose attempts by right wing forces to exploit the issue of immigration to create divisions in our society and to undermine the diversity and stability of Europe. We reject any cooperation with extreme right-wing movements and parties.

The European Union must continue to be a place of refuge for victims of persecution. It must offer full protection to asylum seekers, while co-operating to halt false claims to asylum by economic migrants.

We aim to:

• Develop a European immigration and asylum policy with common standards on visa rules and asylum status.

• Use the European Social Fund to set up integration policies that include better education for migrants and community involvement.

• Fight racism and xenophobia across the EU.

• Improve the standard of living in countries of origin of migration through international organisations and cooperation agreements.

Build a more secure, sustainable, peaceful and just world

We want a strong European Union that has a clear voice in international forums, pressing for a just, stable and peaceful world in accordance with international law and in the framework of the United Nations.

We need reform of the United Nations to enhance its role in ensuring global peace and common security and to make it more representative. The European Union must pay a leading role in working for effective multilateralism, enabling countries to work better together to resolve conflicts and to respond to new security threats. The fight against international terrorism will succeed only if we tackle the causes of terrorism.

We should further develop the European Security and Defence Policy to become a credible instrument in terms of conflict prevention and crisis management. We support the European Security Strategy adopted by the Council in 2003 which will provide the framework for a more effective Common Foreign and Security Policy.

We are committed to strengthening stability in South East Europe and to encouraging the European orientation of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. We must develop our partnerships with our neighbours in the Northern Dimension and revitalise the Barcelona process for our partners from the Mediterranean basin. Our values of human rights and democracy must not stop at our borders but need to be promoted in the countries beyond our new eastern borders.

We aim to:

• Strengthen the UN and its institutions and improve cooperation.

• Enhance European Security and Defence Policy in its role in conflict prevention and crisis management.

• Use EU influence to resume and complete world trade talks to promote global fair trade.

• End quotas and tariffs on exports from developing countries and reform the Common Agricultural Policy.

• Ensure that our development policies respect the priority of protecting and sustaining the environment.

• Build on existing efforts in the area of environment and social responsibility of global business.

Promote Europe as an area of democracy and equality

Our vision is of a European Union based on democracy, equality, respect for human rights, diversity and the rule of law. For this reason, we support the Charter of Fundamental Rights and its inclusion in the Constitution. We should also promote these values beyond the borders of the EU.

We support a strengthened role for the European Parliament as the directly elected voice of the European people.

For social democrats, equality is one of our most important values: democracy is not possible without equality. We oppose all forms of discrimination, including any based on race, religion, belief, gender, disability, age or sexual orientation.

Fraud and corruption undermine democracy and we will root them out wherever they are found. We oppose media concentration and monopoly control of economic and political power.

We will continue to press for further reform of the EU’s institutions. We will fight for openness and transparency, with sound financial management, open competition and value for money in the European Commission.

We aim to:

• Strengthen the role of the European Parliament as the democratic voice of the European people.

• Promote equality and fight all forms of discrimination.

• Reinforce alliances against extreme right-wing forces and challenge other parties, in particular those belonging to the right-wing European People’s Party, to sign the EU Charter for a Non-Racist Society, already signed by all European Social Democrat parties.

• Increase the size and effectiveness of the European Anti-Fraud Office to ensure that it acts earlier on cases of concern.

Your vote counts

The Party of European Socialists urges all voters to take part in the elections of June 2004 and to vote for our vision of the future.

Europe is growing. Together we can make it stronger and better.

Europe needs your vote.

The Party of European Socialists is made up of 28 Socialist, Social Democratic and Labour Parties from the 25 Member States and Norway, as well as 13 associate and observer parties. The Malta Labour Party is a full member of the PES. On the web: www.pes.org