"Today is an important moment for the European project because it is the second time, after Gothenburg, that we have the opportunity to send a very strong signal: social Europe must be a reality now more than ever before," he said, referring to the 2017 summit in Sweden when the European Social Pillar was first approved.

On his way in to the Customs House in Porto, where the Social Summit is being held, Michel said that, with the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU feels that "it is urgent to work hard with the social partners" - trade unions and employer organisations - and with political leaders to achieve "progress" in the field of social policy.

"We will express, with the social partners, the living forces of Europe, this ambition to give the EU the capacity to act even more in the social field," he said.

Looking ahead of tonight's dinner of EU heads of state and government and Saturday's informal European Council meeting at Porto's Palácio de Cristal, Michel said that these gatherings would be an occasion for EU leaders to "be mobilised" and to express "the will to move forward, to make Europe more robust in the social field."

The Social Summit is taking place with the presence in Porto of heads of state and government of 24 of the 27 member states, who are gathered to outline the EU's agenda for the next decade in the field of social policy.

The presidents of the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission, as well as the executive vice-presidents of the commission, Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU's High Representative Josep Borrell and the commissioners Elisa Ferreira, Mariya Gabriel and Nicolas Schmit, as well as other political and institutional leaders, social partners and representatives of civil society are also attending the event, which will be held online and in person at the Customs House.

Presented as the high point of Portugal's six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, the Social Summit has at the heart of its agenda the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, presented by the European Commission in March, which foresees three major goals for 2030: having at least 78% of the working-age population in employment, 60% of workers being given training each year, and lifting 15 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion, five million of them children.

TEYA/ARO // ARO.

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