Clinton, González, Blair to meet in New York to launch the Global Progress Council of IDEAS Foundation and the Center for American Progress

Jesús Caldera, Vice President of IDEAS,
with John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress.

The former American President, Bill Clinton, the Spanish former Prime Minister, Felipe González and the former prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, will be the guest of Jesús Caldera, the executive vice president of IDEAS, and John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress, at the progressive leaders’ meeting promoted by both foundations, and which hold in New York on December 13 & 14.

The meeting saw the participation of other renowned progressive figures like Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Denmark), Carme Chacón (Spain), Matthias Machning (Germany), Mona Salin (Sweden), Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (PES President), Gordon Bajnai (Hungary) and Trevor Manuel (South Africa) among others.

The aim of this meeting was to prepare the Global Progress Summit, to be held in Madrid in 2011 as the second edition of this event, during which IDEAS Foundation, the Center for American Progress and other progressive foundations gathered leaders, strategists, economists, scholars and representatives from think tanks and institutions across the globe to discuss the present and future of left policies to address the future challenges we face.

The first Global Progress was also held in Madrid, at Casa de América, last October 1 and 2.The novelty of this meeting was that it represents the beginning of a dialogue across generations between well-renowned leaders and a new generation of political leaders from Europe, Africa, America and Australasia, who will attend the sessions. The panels were organized around five working groups to discuss during the roundtables. (see program).This New York meeting launched three high-level working groups on: the New Paradime of the Sustainable Economy; Demographic Change and Progressive Values; and Citizenship, Migratory movements and Integration which proceedings will be presented at the Madrid conference in 2011.