Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker believes that Portugal will be able to achieve concrete results at the Porto Social Summit, commenting that if Prime Minister António Costa is not successful, “no one will be, because he is one of the best”.
In an interview with
Lusa, Juncker, host of the first European summit devoted to social affairs in 1997, said he had good expectations for the Porto Summit on 7 May.
He acknowledged, though, that the conclusions adopted by European leaders are often forgotten – as happened in 1997 when it was decided to hold an annual summit devoted to social issues. The next one took place only 20 years later, in Sweden.
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More than a hundred European personalities urged several European leaders in an open letter published Friday to commit to ending homelessness in the EU by 2030 when they meet at the Porto Social Summit which is set to take place on 7 May.
The letter’s signatories, which include MEPs, mayors, NGOs and Committee of the Regions members, described homelessness as “an extreme form of poverty” and a “violation of human rights” that cannot be “tolerated” or “ignored” in the EU.
Among the Portuguese presidency’s main priorities is the approval of the European Pillar of Social Rights’s action plan presented by the European Commission in March.
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Today, during the plenary debate on the European Social Pillar, Social Democrats called for more ambition in the Commission’s Action Plan. They highlighted the window of opportunity for the Portuguese presidency of the EU to give a long-overdue impulse to Europe’s social dimension.
The leader of the S&D Group in the European Parliament, Iratxe García MEP, said:
“9 out of 10 Europeans want social Europe to be a priority, while the EU has neglected the social dimension for two decades: neoliberal policies and market freedoms took over, undermining the foundations of our integration project. This is why we must now deliver. The Portuguese presidency, and the Social Summit in Porto, can be the turning point to finally make the 2017 European Pillar of Social Rights a reality, as this is an important commitment of Prime Minister António Costa.
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“Since the very beginning of the vaccination campaign in Europe, we have heard questionable excuses from pharmaceutical companies trying to justify their failure to respect agreed commitments and live up to EU citizens’ expectations. This is not acceptable. Europe has paid for these vaccines in advance with public money and we demand that companies respect the agreements. Every single day of delay is a failure for our health and the economic recovery.”
S&D co-ordinator in the environment committee, Jytte Guteland
The S&D Group sent a clear message to pharmaceutical CEOs this week, calling on companies to increase the production of vaccines and look at future challenges with new variants and strains.