Barcelona, 15/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - European Socialist and Social Democrat leaders meeting on Thursday evening in Barcelona before the European Council reaffirmed the need to maintain the European social model. They said they were in favour of structural reforms and liberalisation to the benefit of consumers, and not just to the benefit of large companies. Enrique Baron, President of the Socialist Group at the European Parliament, mainly insisted on this, while PSOE President, José Luis Zapatero, reproached the Spanish Prime Minister, José Maria Aznar, for "distorting the debate" on the liberalisation of the energy markets because "he is asking of others what he would not ask of himself", and because the electricity sector in Spain is "concentrated in just a few hands", without any competition. Mr Zapatero insisted on the aim of full employment "with quality jobs". He hoped that the EU would reach its development aid objective of 0.39% of GDP before 2006. (Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders told journalists in Barcelona that the Monterrey prospects are not good: "If we work at this pace, we shall reach development aid of 0.7% of GDP in 2050!", was his ironical comment).
The Summit of Socialists was followed by a dinner attended, in addition to the President of the Party of European Socialists (PES), by Robin Cook and José Luis Zapatero, Heads of Government Tony Blair, Antonio Guterres (taking part at his last European Council , as he is not at the head of the list of Portuguese Socialists for the general elections next Sunday), Wim Kok, Paavo Lipponen and Göran Persson, as well as CFSP High Representative/Secretary General of the Council Javier Solana.