Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
The Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament (also Progressive Alliance of Socialists, English Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats, short S & D) is a Group in the European Parliament. It comprises the members of the Party of European Socialists (PES ) and other members who belong to any political party at European level, but programmatically Social Democracy closely related. With a total of 194 MEPs she is currently ( as of 5 December 2011) is the second largest fraction of the Parliament; it is the only group with members from all 28 EU Member States. Group chaired by the Austrian Hannes Swoboda.
Under the name Socialist Group (also Socialist Group, English Socialist Group, French Groupe Socialiste ) the Group was established in the then Parliamentary Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community on 23 June 1953. Since the 1970s up to the European elections of 1999, she was the strongest faction of the parliament. After the establishment of PES 1992, the Group changed its name on 21 April 1993 in the Group of the Party of European Socialists. On 20 July 2004, the Group for the differentiation of the party SPE was again renamed Socialist Group in the European Parliament. Under its present name, the S & D was founded on 23 June 2009 as a result of the European elections of 2009. By renaming the integration of the Italian Partito Democratico (PD ) should be enabled: This center -left party had emerged from various parties in 2007, some of the social-democratic, partly belonged to the liberal group in the European Parliament. Since some PD members a self-designation as "socialists" rejected, they should consent to the common fraction be facilitated by the new name. Four MPs from the PD at times belong to the European Democratic Party. Early 2014 joined the PD and the SPE at.
Members of the Group
The following table lists the national member parties of the Group are listed. Highlighted in gray are members of the Group who are not members of the SPE.