My true intention and motive for gathering this many people in the European Parliament today who deal with social democracy as politicians, journalists or analysts has been to see to what extent social democracy is still an answer to the crisis affecting the lives of millions of people, notably in the crisis-hit European Union, Picula said.
Guests and speakers at the conference included the leader of the Party of European Socialists, Sergei Stanishev, and the president of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second largest political group of the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella.
Picula said social democracy used to protect workers and today it was supposed to protect the impoverished middle class.
Those present criticised the policies of Croatia's ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP), to which Picula responded that "a debate would not be as good had we invited only out political think-alikes."
Stanishev underscored that despite the difficulties, social democracy in Europe was getting stronger. As positive social democratic achievements, Stanishev underlined the Youth Guarantee programme, saying that the programme was initiated by European socialists, and Juncker's Investment Plan.
The word "investments" has been banished over the past several years and at our request the European Commission has drawn up a EUR 315 billion investment plan, Stanishev said.