Four years after the first summit, which brought together European leaders to revitalise the EU’s social policy, more than two hundred political leaders and social partners from across the EU will be invited back to Porto on 18 and 19 September to take stock of the progress made since May 2021 (see EUROPE 12716/3).
An intermediate forum was already held in 2023 (see EUROPE 13190/26). The 2025 ‘Porto Social Forum’, organised by the Portuguese government in conjunction with the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Council and the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, will focus on the issue of quality jobs in a competitive social Europe. The results of the debates will guide the new action plan on the European pillar of social rights, the Quality Jobs Roadmap and the roll out of the Union of Skills, a note from the Portuguese government explains.
At the Porto Social Summit in May 2021, Member States, social partners and European institutions set three major objectives for social Europe by 2030, concerning employment, training and the fight against poverty.
Ahead of this deadline, the European Commission had presented an action plan for the European pillar of social rights, with a legislative timetable comprising proposals for directives, revisions of existing texts and new recommendations to the Member States that must achieve these three major objectives by 2030: employment for at least 78% of 20-64 year-olds; participation in training activities for at least 60% of adults each year; and at least 15 million fewer people at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
While the first objective (regarding employment) is on track to be achieved (employment levels reached 75.8% in 2024), the EU is still lagging behind in 2025 on lifelong learning and poverty reduction, in the latter case with a reduction of only 2.8 million people compared to 2019, according to 2024 data.
The forum will focus on four interconnected policy areas: improving the implementation of the ‘European pillar of social rights’; promoting quality jobs for a more competitive Europe: towards a fourth 2030 objective of the Action Plan for the European pillar of social rights; the global outlook in a context of geopolitical tensions and trade disruptions; and finally, free and fair labour mobility for a competitive European Union.
Link to concept note: https://aeur.eu/f/i7q (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)