Commenting on the declaration of the EU’s Porto Social Summit, European Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Luca Visentini said:
“Today’s declaration represents a symbolic turning point for Europe, beginning to put it back on the social path enshrined in the founding treaties that is needed to build back fairer from the pandemic.
“The vision agreed by leaders and social partners today has the potential to raise working and living standards of people across the continent – but only if the promise of the Social Pillar is transformed into concrete policies at European and national level. Leaders must live up to the slogan of the summit: time to deliver.
“Progress has to begin with a people’s recovery from the Covid crisis which puts saving and creating quality and well-paid jobs through massive public investment ahead of rigid debt control rules.
“Relaunching Social Europe is only possible through a fundamental shift in our economic model from one solely based on chasing profits and productivity to one that focuses on the wellbeing of people and is respectful of the environment, of social justice and of individual and collective rights.
“A decade of austerity left Europe economically poorer and politically more divided. This summit must be the start of a decade of social progress which leaves no one behind.”
Full speech of Luca Visentini to the EU Social Summit
In the declaration signed today, EU institutions, Portuguese Presidency and social partners have agreed to:
- “Maintain emergency measures as long as necessary”
- “An inclusive, sustainable, just and jobs-rich recovery”
- “Foster decent working conditions and fair pay for all”
- “Reinforce national social protection systems to ensure a life with dignity for all”
- “Promote gender equality, including by closing the gender pay gap and guaranteeing the right to equal pay for work of equal value”
