by Philip Cordery, PES General Secretary
It is one week and counting to the PES Progressive Convention. It is the biggest and broadest gathering of the European progressive family that we will have ever seen.

It is quite likely that if you are reading this, you are either from one of the 48 different NGO’s, research or trade union organisations organising a workshop, or from one the 50 socialist or social democratic member parties attending from all over Europe, or you are one of the 100’s of PES activists who will be attending from all corners of Europe. Or you may indeed be new to the PES and a first time attendee at such a political event. Wherever you are from and whatever your interest is, you can be sure of an enthusiastic welcome and an electric atmosphere.

We expect there to be well over 1000 participants at our convention. And in our case, the word ‘participant’ is 100% accurate. Our event is designed to show the biggest strength of progressive politics – engagement. This is the key word. We want the Convention to be an engagement with foundations, with organisations, with trade unions, with NGOs, and above all, engagement with people.

But let’s not forget that engagement does not happen overnight. People are fed up because they do not see any political leadership, so they do not trust politics anymore. They are wary. They are nervous and worried for their futures. They need to be convinced all over again of the value of political engagement. This convincing can only be done at a grassroots level. This is the mission we are embarking on with our convention. We are trying to put the right people back in the driving seat of society, to reinforce democracy

There are 4 themes: A Fair Economy, Equal Societies, A Just world, Active Democracy. Under these themes we will use our declaration of principles as the cement to build our new European structure. Each of the more than 1000 people who will come to our Convention, hopefully including you, will each bring the progress, the spirit and the energy of our convention back to the local communities. Based on this energy, we will start to build, brick by brick, our PES fundamental programme. This is where we will see the return on our investment in engagement.

It is our privilege to be hosting this Convention next week and it will be our pleasure to make it a resounding success.