ARF PARTICIPATED IN THE VII CONVENTION OF PARTY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS
Yerkir.am
December 15, 2006
The VII convention of the Party of European Socialists was held in
Porto, Portugal, on December 7-8.
300 delegates from 32 socialist parties from 27 EU member states
(25+2) and over 1000 other delegates participated in the convention.
The Prime Ministers of Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary,
party leaders, European MPs, representatives of youth and
women’s organizations participated in the convention. The Armenian
Revolutionary Federation Party was also invited to participate. Member
of ARF’s Board and ARF’s representative in the Socialist International
Mario Nalbandian attended the convention. The US Democratic Party
and the Communist Party of China were also invited to the convention.
During the convention the Danish Prime Minister of 1993-2001 Paul
Rasmussen was reelected chairman of the PES, and Philippe Corderi
from France was elected secretary of PES.
The convention approved the reports on PES’s activities of the
past three years and adopted PES’s action plan for the upcoming
three years. The main directions of PES’s activities will be new
socialist Europe, child protection, energy and climate issues. The
structural reforms of the organization as well as the composition of
the chairmanship were also approved. The convention passed bills on
the Middle East and Byelorussia.
The representatives of the invited parties had a special session during
which Mario Nalbandian presented a report on the recent developments in
Armenia and the region expressing appreciation that PES is interested
in becoming an actor in the South Caucasus.
During the convention Nalbandian met PES Chairman Rasmussen, Chairman
of Socialist International and the Greek Party George Papandreou,
Chief Secretary of the French Socialist Party Francois Holland,
Chairman of the US Democratic Party’s National Committee Howard
Dean, leader of the Lebanese Socialist Party Walid Jomblat and
representatives of a number of other socialist parties.
During these meetings a number of issues relevant for Armenia and
the ARF were discussed.
Only socialist parties from EU member states can become members of
the PES.
Socialist parties from EU candidate states can become associate
members.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
