"Who we are" - a message from Iratxe García Pérez, president of the S&D Group.
This is the time to protect citizens and to defend our freedoms.
We are living in historic times. Never before has the European Union faced external challenges such as the war in Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic. So far, we have maintained our unity and tackled the effects of successive crises with solidarity. However, at times of crises when the burden of the common effort is not equally shared, and people and businesses are left to face the problems on their own, populistic and autocratic forces gain ground.
Real life everyday problems affect all of us, and even more so after the brutal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, which has brought disastrous consequences for everyone on our continent. This adds to ongoing challenges that we cannot lose sight of: the climate emergency, globalisation, digitalisation, and migration. The EU must provide a safety and security network for urgent problems while staying on our path towards a more sustainable and fairer Union, and at the same time reinforce these values in the world.
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