Oustanding first result for Campaign for a PES Primary

The Campaign for a PES Primary is delighted to announce the first result of all the hard work and support that PES activists and supporters have given to us. Desmond O'Toole and José Reis Santos have been invited to attend a seminar organised by the Party of European Socialists in Brussels on the 23rd September.

The seminar, which has been planned with the national member parties since May, marks the beginning of the debate between PES national parties about how the process to select our candidate for Commision President will evolve. This is outstanding news and means that the PES will directly involve activists in the development of an agreed selection process.

The seminar is the start of a process that will lead to this issue hopefully being placed on the agenda of the PES Council that will take place in Warsaw from the 3-4th December. The Campaign for a PES Primary is working to ensure that a decision will be made in Warsaw, at least in principle, to adopt primary elections as the preferred way of selecting our candidate for Commission President.

We will shortly provide details for supporters to give their ideas on what Desmond and José should present to the seminar in Brussels. We want to start a debate amongst PES activists and supporters on how they think the selection of our candidate should be organised. How should candidates be nominated? How should they be selected? Who should get to vote in the primaries? How should those votes be counted? Should the votes be weighted like the QMV votes are weighted in the European Council?

There are many quesitons to ask and many issues to debate and the Campaign for a PES Primary wants to hear what you have to say and what your ideas are.