We, the leaders of Europe’s socialist and social democratic parties, are meeting in Berlin on the eve of the 140th anniversary of the founding of the SPD. We congratulate the SPD and appreciate its great achievements both for Germany and Europe. We welcome the important reforms the SPD has made since its election victories in 1998 and 2002. We also trust the SPD’s unrelenting commitment to a strong Europe of solidarity in the future.

In Berlin today we are strengthening our solemn obligation to European unity. The enlargement of the European Union brings us even closer to our fundamental goal - a Europe of peace and security, solidarity and equal opportunities, tolerance and partnership.

We want to make Europe a zone of global competitiveness with a dynamic and knowledge-based economy. We commit ourselves to the implementation of the necessary reforms to achieve greater justice between the generations, more innovation,  competitiveness and growth in Europe that are the basis of our well-being. We can learn a lot from one another in this process. We want to co-operate and take our decisions more effectively and combine our forces to further develop the European social model.

Economic growth must not be achieved at the cost to the environment or of human worth. We need a more proactive economic and social policy in Europe to enable our citizens take responisbility for their own actions and achieve their full potential in a knowledge-based society. In order for this to succeed we need extensive investment in education, training and research.

Europe has a long-term economic, social and environmental strategy for full-employment and economic growth. This strategy seeks to protect natural resources and to achieve a better balance between the state and the market and between competition and solidarity.

Our vision for sustainability and comprehensive welfare should be the European answer to the new global agenda of the UN World Summit agreed in Johannesburg in 2002.

The binding of environmentally sustainable goals in a strategy of sustainable growth will be a major policy task over the next few years. We want Europe to be a leading power in the transition from an economy based on fossil fuel to one based on renewable sources. We need to assist developing countries in this and help them to avoid the mistakes we ourselves made.

We want the Europe of 25 now, and the Europe of 27 in 2007, to be a reliable partner for its current and future neighbours and a responsible ally in a global coalition for peace, human rights and justice. That is our vision for a Europe of the 21st century. We commit ourselves once more to the criteria the EU has set for membership.

Europe must be a strong and equal partner in the construction of a co-operative world order. Europe needs, therefore, a Foreign, Security and Defence Policy which will give it the will and capacity to negotiate together. That is why we support moves towards further co-operation in this area.

Europe and America are vital partners for each other and for a co-operative world order. The USA and the European Union share responsibility in the search for a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict which should be based on the roadmap set out by the Quartet of the UN, EU, USA and Russia.

We want to develop international links and organisations so that the world can be safer and better. We can only achieve that only when we strengthen the awareness of the United Nations - for the UN can only be as strong as its member states make it.

The fight against poverty and human suffering, which must remain our highest priority, will lead to lasting world peace, stability and well-being.

The European Union should remain the world’s largest development aid donor in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. The current international trade round must address the injustices of the world trade system. The European Union must make a decisive step with an ambitious reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. This reform should combine the necessity for rural development in EU states with our responsibility to open our markets to food exports from developing countries.

Hundreds of millions of employees have no access to basic employment and social rights. Social security is restricted to a small minority of global employees.

Child labour is one of the worst forms of exploitation which, according to estimates, affects 200 million children world-wide.  This commitment to others is our constant endeavour.

We demand that the EU takes over the responsibility for the follow-up to the UN Social Summit and the further development of the global social strategy.

The European Union should promote the campaign for reform of global governance. The result should be a strengthening of the United Nations in order to find meaningful answers to global challenges.

Europe has a long tradition of employment and social rights. Europe has understood  how to combine social security systems with strong economic progress and has thereby shown how social security and employment standards can be productive factors. Over previous decades the European Union has developed its core of social rights to include common regulations to combat discrimination and the fight against xenophobia and social exclusion.

True progress to a better world can only be achieved through the development of progressive alliances at the international level. We want to bring together all social democrats as well as other progressive political forces, NGOs, trade unions and enterprises who share our common political goals so that they may overcome the challenges of the 21st century.

Our ambitious goal is a world of peace, security and social justice. Our initiative, together with the Socialist International and our parliamentary group in the European Parliament, to organise a Global Progressive Forum in the European Parliament in Brussels in November 2003 is evidence of this ambitious goal.

Peace, solidarity and social justice in a united Europe - those were the goals that the founders of our parties sought to achieve. No generation has been closer to the accomplishment of these goals. We will do all within our powers to make them real.