The Minister of Labor and Solidarity announced this Saturday, in Porto, the signing of an Open Letter renewing the commitments of the Porto Social Summit for 2030, foreseeing the acceleration of the goal of the European guarantee for children.
The letter [aberta] evaluates where we are, two years after the Porto Social Summit [em 2021]the reaffirmation of the commitments and quantitative goals that we assumed for 2030. Up to now we are globally meeting the goals and the pace that we set for ourselves, so we reaffirm that these goals are truly compliance”, declared Minister Ana Mendes Godinho, in a conference to present the conclusions of the Porto Social Forum 2023, which is being held at the Rosa Mota Pavilion, in Porto.
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The Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security explained that the Porto Social Forum 2023 also served the Member States discuss speeding up some measures, namely speeding up the commitment to the European guarantee for children.
“At a global European level, the European guarantee for children was approved. Right now, it is in the hands of the Member States to implement the guarantee for children,” he explained.
In Portugal, the minister recalled, the guarantee provision for children was created, the action plan was approved, free nurseries were made, family allowances were reinforced and local centers are being created to monitor the guarantee for children.
“Portugal has 150,000 children covered by the childhood guarantee they have a name, they have a face, and we have a collective responsibility to get them out of the vicious circle of poverty”, observed Ana Mendes Godinho.
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In addition to the European guarantee for children, the guarantee of adequate minimum wages, the directive on salary transparency, the action plan for the social economy, are other pillars decided and legitimized at the Porto Social Summit in 2021.
Questioned by journalists about whether there was a change in the social commitments for Europe because of the war in Ukraine, a fact that did not exist at the time of the Porto summit in 2021, Ana Mendes Godinho declared that the objectives are the same.
“Moments of emergency happen and we (European Union) we must be able to respond to emergencies, crises, but structurally never slow down social investment that we have assumed and that is why we maintain the same commitments, even with all the circumstances that we are experiencing, because we consider that these objectives are really critical for our social model”, he said.
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The open letter is “addressed to all Europeans, written and signed by all, towards the renewal of commitments, with figures and clear objectives so that we continue on this path“, summed up the minister, adding that, naturally, there was a need to accelerate also in the dimensions of skills and qualifications in the world of the double transition (digital and environmental).
The year 2023 is the year dedicated to qualifications and skills and the “priority is that the double transition is accompanied by a massive retraining and requalification of workers”, ensuring that priority is given to lifelong learning, so that people always maintain their capabilities, and consequently be valued in the labor market.
For Ana Mendes Godinho, the positive balance of the Porto Social Forum 2021 is “positive”, but it is a balance of “permanent concern” about what more remains to be done.
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The 2021 Porto Social Forum comes two years after the Porto Social Summit, with the aim of evaluating what was done after the action plan drawn up at the 2021 Porto Social Summit, and how the goals are globally assumed for Europe.
Source: Observadora
