12 May 2021
The Social Summit organised by the Portuguese Presidency in Porto on 7 and 8 May, should become a milestone towards reinvigorating the project of a fairer Europe. In an editorial published on Euractiv on the morning of the Summit, SGI Europe presented its vision and contribution to making Social Europe a reality, relying on a new paradigm for SGIs at EU level and an honest reflexion on the EU economic governance. Read more.
Composed of Mr Pascal Bolo and Ms Valeria Ronzitti, respectively President and General Secretary of SGI Europe, as well as Luís Filipe Natal Marques, President of the Portuguese section, SGI Europe had a series of high-level bilateral meetings. Amongst others, SGI Europe met with Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa to discuss the future of Social Europe and the key role that SGIs can play in this process. In another bilateral meeting, Mr Bolo and Ms Ronzitti also exchanged views with Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Janša, focusing on Europe's strategic autonomy, and the role of other services of general interest in the priorities of the upcoming Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council.
Gathering Heads of State and of Government, and social partners, the High-level conference organised on 7 May at the Alfandega Congress Centre in Porto was a unique opportunity for SGI Europe’s delegation to restate the importance of employers and providers of SGIs in building a more social Europe.
Organised around 3 workshops on “Employment and Jobs”, “Skills and Innovation” and “Welfare State and Social Protection”, and plenary sessions, the Porto Summit allowed for in-depth exchanges between social partners and EU leaders in the lead-up to the official signing of the Porto Declaration. SGI Europe speakers addressed all 3 panels, as well as the concluding plenary.
Workshop 1 – Employment and Jobs
Speaking in workshop 1 on “Employment and Jobs”, General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti called for maintaining supportive measures for employment until the end of the COVID-19 emergency. She also highlighted the need to include more active labour market policy elements to address labour shortages or skills mismatches, and aiming at new productivity gains, especially in the context of the twin green and digital transition. She also issued 2 important calls to Member States:
The need to support social partners at the national level in creating an enabling framework for social dialogue for implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights. The key role of collective bargaining in defining, monitoring, and enforcing a wide range of social policies, starting from the workplace, and are the social partners primary “raison d’être”.
SGI Europe calls for a new paradigm which guarantees that productive investments in essential services are made into the levers of a postpandemic recovery which leaves no one behind, as renewed investments in SGIs will be key to reaching sustainable productivity gains and creating new quality jobs.
Workshop 2 – Skills and Innovation
President Pascal Bolo addressed the workshop on “Skills and Innovation”, during which he highlighted the role of SGIs in ensuring the future success of the EU in the twin transition and developing green and digital skills. He also stressed that, in order to succeed in this twin transition, effective investment supporting modern, equitable and sustainable education systems must be guaranteed in the future.
The priorities have not changed throughout the pandemic, and now represent the long-term and sustainable path towards recovery. He particularly focused on the potential of:
Workshop 3 – Welfare State and Social Protection
Luís Filipe Natal Marques, President of SGI Europe – Portugal, spoke in workshop 3 on “Welfare State and Social Protection”, and the lessons from the COVID-19 crisis on that matter.
SGIs are at the heart of the management of the pandemic, which further highlighted the importance of competent welfare states and resilient healthcare systems. This understanding should now be extended to empower all essential SGIs which play the key role of enablers for citizens and companies, and are a prolongation of our social protection systems.
In light of the Pillar’s chapter on Social protection and inclusion, together with its principles on access to services such as childcare, long-term care and housing, Mr Marques also recalled the need to operate a paradigm shift with recruitment and investment in SGIs to be factored in as productive long-term investments. In order to ensure the quality of services such as public transport, energy and education, the social scoreboard in the framework of the European Semester should be the key instrument.
“We are looking forward to the future launch of the High-Level Expert Group on the future of the welfare state, its financing and interconnections with the changing world of work and the first ever future EU report on access to essential services”, concluded Mr Marques.
Concluding plenary
In the concluding plenary, SGI Europe President Pascal Bolo addressed the key role of SGIs in Social Europe, as well as the importance of the European Pillar of Social Rights in this process. Mr Bolo called for particular attention to two central elements for its successful implementation:
He also supported the proposal of the European Commission to create 3 social targets by 2030 on employment, vocational training and the fight against poverty, which should become the beacon of the new investments from the National Recovery and Resilience Plans and be accompanied by monitoring tools on the access to quality services of general interest.
Looking beyond, Mr Bolo proposed a comprehensive vision for the future of the EU social model, relying on new ways to measure growth beyond GDP and an in-depth reflection on the future of the EU economic governance to promote productive investments.
On 7 May, the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Parliament, the Portuguese Prime Minister currently holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, the European social partners and civil society organisations, signed the Porto Social Commitment. The co-signatories pledged to do their utmost to build a more inclusive, more social Europe. They welcomed the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and strengthened the commitment to transform its principles into actions to set in motion a strong, fair, and job-rich recovery. You can find the Porto Social Commitment here.
Following up on the Porto Social Commitment, Heads of State and of Government of the 27 Member States endorsed their own Porto Declaration on social rights and employment, underlining the “importance of European unity and solidarity in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic”, the fundamental role of the European Pillar of Social Rights in the recovery whilst also recognising that the “social dimension, social dialogue and the active involvement of social partners have always been at the core of a highly competitive social market economy.” Lastly, the European Council welcomed “the new EU headline targets on jobs, skills and poverty reduction and the revised Social Scoreboard proposed in the Action Plan” and welcomed, “as another success of the European social dialogue, that they made a joint proposal for an alternative set of indicators to measure economic, social and environmental progress, supplementing GDP as welfare measure for inclusive and sustainable growth.” You can find the Porto Declaration here.
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