Brussels, Jan. 27, 2021 (Lusa) - The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is "committed to making a substantial contribution" to the success of the Social Summit scheduled to take place in Porto, the institution's president said on Wednesday after a bilateral meeting with Portugal's prime minister, António Costa.

Just before attending the EESC plenary session this afternoon by videoconference to discuss the priorities of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union, António Costa had a bilateral meeting with the EESC president, Christa Schweng, at the end of which they released a joint statement in which the two leaders said they were in complete agreement on the work programme for the six-month period and, in particular, the emphasis placed on social issues.

"The EU Social Summit in Porto is an important step to further prepare our future social, societal and economic model in Europe. The EESC looks forward to participating in the event and is committed to making a substantial and timely contribution on the basis of the concrete experience of its members", Schweng said.

The Austrian leader noted that the EESC "is very interested in cooperating closely with the Portuguese presidency, especially through the exploratory opinions requested by the Portuguese government".

"These focus on remote working, vocational training, skills and the role of the social economy in job creation and the implementation of the European pillar of social rights. Proposing a Digital Rights Charter, promoting the adoption of digital tools by governments across the EU and using the EU recovery package to create a digital and green economy that leaves no one behind are urgent initiatives," said Schweng, stressing that "the EESC is willing to contribute actively to these proposals.

Also according to the statement, "in order to set the European economic and social recovery in motion, Costa and the EESC president agreed that the financing of the Recovery and Resilience Fund needs to be delivered quickly to citizens and businesses and the European Pillar of Social Rights needs to be put into practice as a basis for trust in the climate and digital transitions, without leaving anyone behind".

Costa reiterated that the "central event" of the Portuguese presidency will be the Social Summit to be held in May in Porto, "with the social partners, civil society, the presidents of the institutions, and the Member States", and the main objective of which is "to give a strong political impetus to the Action Plan for the next decade, which the Commission will present in March", and which embodies the ambition expressed by European citizens "to put into practice the 20 general principles proclaimed in Gothenburg in November 2017".

Costa also said that "the Portuguese presidency has an important contribution and active participation of the European Economic and Social Committee to achieve this fundamental objective".

The European Economic and Social Committee pointed out that it will contribute to the work of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU, in particular by sharing "the views of civil society" on various issues, through opinions that it is currently drawing up, at the request of the presidency, on issues such as the challenges of remote working, vocational training, the role of the social economy in job creation and the implementation of the European pillar of social rights, remote working and gender equality, a single European railway area, and training and lifelong learning.

Costa will today address the EESC plenary session by videoconference from 2.45 p.m. Brussels, 1.45 p.m. Lisbon.

The European Economic and Social Committee is an advisory body composed of representatives of workers' and employers' organisations and other interest groups. It issues opinions on European issues to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, currently under Portuguese presidency, until the end of June.

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