At the Partido Socialista Congress PES President Sergei Stanishev congratulated the government of Antonio Costa on beginning to move Portugal away from austerity:
“Turning the page on austerity is not an easy task, but by focusing the work of the government on the people, instead of the figures, Antonio Costa has already achieved much in the first six months of his Premiership. People in Portugal have already seen an increase of the minimum wage, pensions restored and same-sex couple adoption introduced.”
In Spain Sergei Stanishev gave a glimpse of the European Youth plan which will be officially launched in Brussels on 16 June.
“I don’t need to inform you, in Spain, about the pain that youth unemployment causes. Child and youth poverty must become a priority for everybody, to demonstrate that Europe can protect its most vulnerable citizens. The European Youth Guarantee is a good tool to really change young people’s situations. To continue our fight against youth unemployment, we want the Youth Guarantee to become a permanent feature of EU employment policies.
The Youth Guarantee in Spain right is currently not implement the way it should be. Under a PSOE leadership government, the Youth Guarantee would provide quality training and jobs. We need more progressive governments in Europe which are committed to ambitious policies to tackle youth unemployment.”