Opening the event, Rijeka Mayor Vojko Obersnel said an industrial development strategy must have a prominent position in the European Union's development policy and that structural funds must encourage quality programmes and projects that created jobs.
In his keynote speech, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said the economic downturn in the second quarter would probably be two per cent and that the way out of this situation was with "our own strengths, work, intelligence and ideas."
He said Croatia must not depend only on tourism, but also on the industrialisation of Rijeka with advanced technologies, agricultural renewal, output diversification, and regional development.
Milanovic said 2012 started well for social democracy, mentioning electoral victories in Denmark and France and noting that Social Democrats were no longer in power in southern Europe.
He said "we must stay true to our principles but also be quick and pragmatic," underlining "not austerity at any cost but rational sacrifice."
Milanovic said there would be no significant progress without agreement between the big powers like Germany, France, Great Britain and others, adding that bigger fiscal integration was necessary for development.
He went on to say that he grew up in the former Yugoslavia, saying it was politically centralised, with a big but chaotic autonomy, that everyone pulled in their direction, which ended in war, there was no cohesion and the state broke up.
The PES meeting concluded that the programme for European growth must rest on the establishment of an industrial renewal strategy with the active participation of all levels of government.
The Progressive Agenda for Industrial Renewal adopted today calls on the European Commission to fully use the potential of the Lisbon Treaty in the industrial policy as well as on the Commission and the Council of Europe to better integrate the industrial policy in the Europe 2020 strategy.
Participants in the meeting advocated developing a synergy between industry and services, saying the main challenge to the competitiveness of European companies was increasing productivity through efficiency in sustainable resource management.
It was concluded that structural funds will play a key role in Europe's reindustrialisation.
Participants asked for a change in the European Commission's policy of state incentives, for a bigger acknowledgement of the quality of public spending and that social partners be more involved in the industrial policy.
They also advocated a higher use of innovative financial instruments and said government must be more present in the economy, notably on the regional and local levels.
The PES first vice president in the Committee of the Regions, Catiuscia Marini, said there was no going back and that one must set the foundations of an economy-based future.
She said industrial renewal was the focus of the European Social Democrats' policy and that the impact of structural funds must be used to the maximum, that the industrial policy must become the focus of local communities and that local economies must adapt to the new challenges.