INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS A Fundamental Programme for the PES A German Perspective on What Is Still under Construction, Common Ground and Key Objectives BJÖRN HACKER/GERO MAASS December 2010 ࡯ The economic, social and environmental challenges of the twenty-first century tran­scend national borders. Only together will social democratic parties in Europe be able to make good their claim to shape Europeanisation and globalisation in their own image. ࡯ This is why SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel, at the last congress of the Party of European Socialists(PES), proposed the working out of a joint fundamental programme for all social democratic parties in Europe. ࡯ This ambitious plan comes, in the wake of lost elections and the apparent end of the line for the»Third Way« as the dominant model of the past decade, at a time in which social democratic parties throughout Europe are seeking to establish them­selves on a new footing. ࡯ The authors present the exigencies and obstacles of a social democratic European narrative and, from a German perspective, formulate a number of substantive and organisational cornerstones for work on the joint programme.