The Party of European Socialists (PES), through its president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and the first secretary of the French Socialist Party Martine Aubry who, together with the president of the European Progressive Studies Foundation Massimo d'Alema gave a press conference at the Zappion Mansion at the end of the two-day conference of PES leaders, expressed unanimous support for the extension of the repayment of the loans of Greece and Ireland, with a simultaneous decrease in interest rates.

The basic positions of the PES, in the midst of an economic crisis, are summed up in that the crisis is not due to the peoples, but to the conservative governments, Rasmussen said, criticising the conservative forces of using the factor of fear and using as an example the Interior minister of France on the occasion of the dramatic events in Libya and Tunisia.

On the occasion of the same developments that were discussed at the PES summit on Saturday morning, Aubry said at the press conference that a decision was approved for European support for these peoples, at first with the sending of serious humanitarian aid to refugees trapped on the Libyan borders.

Prime Minister George Papandreou held separate meetings on Friday, on the sidelines of the sessions of the Party of European Socialists (PES) leaders taking place in Athens, with Zlatko Lagumdzija, President of SDP, Bosnia Herzegovina, Eamon Gilmore, President of the Labour Party, Ireland, Martine Aubry, First Secretary of the PS, France, Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Serbia and leader of the Serb Democratic Party.