Poverty, Basic Rights on Agenda of Porto Summit

Welfare and unemployment are on the agenda in Porto, Portugal, where this weekend EU leaders are getting together for the first time in 5 months for a 2-day summit that started today.

The leaders gathered in Portugal – minus German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Netherlands’ prime minister Mark Rutte – will discuss basic EU rights like employment support, gender equality, and social services. Their goals include improving employment numbers, providing continuing education for adults, and reducing the number of people at risk of poverty. They’ll also discuss the US proposal to share Covid vaccine technology and have a videoconference with India’s prime minister about tackling the health crisis in his country.

Across Europe, the need for a social safety net has been made more apparent due to the economic damage as a result of the COVID-19 global health crisis.

Source: France24