Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats | |
---|---|
European Parliament group | |
Name | Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats |
English abbr. | S&D[1] (23 June 2009 – present) |
French abbr. | S&D[6] (23 June 2009 – present) |
Formal name | Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament[1] (23 June 2009 – present) |
Ideology | Social democracy[13] Pro-Europeanism |
Political position | Centre-left[14] |
European parties | Party of European Socialists |
Associated organisations | Progressive Alliance Socialist International |
From | 23 June 1953[3] |
To | Present |
Chaired by | Iratxe García |
MEP(s) | 136 / 720 |
Website | socialistsanddemocrats |
This article is part of a series on |
European Union portal |
The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)[1] is the political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES).[15] The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats was officially founded as a Socialist Group on 29 June 1953, which makes it the second oldest political group in the European Parliament after the European People's Party Group (EPP Group). It adopted its present-day name on 23 June 2009.[16] Centre-left in orientation,[17] the group mostly comprises social democratic parties and is affiliated with the Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.
Until the 1999 European Parliament elections, it was the largest group in the Parliament, but since then it has always been the second-largest group. During the eighth EU Parliament Assembly, the S&D was the only Parliament group with representation from all 27 EU member states. In the current EU Parliament the S&D is currently composed of 136 members from 25 member states.
In the European Council, eight out of 27 heads of state and government belong to PES parties and in the European Commission, 8 out of 27 Commissioners come from PES parties.