CIP: “It would be a mistake” to believe that everything is fine in Social Security

“IT IS it is very positive that we open the discussion on the subject of social security to achieve a plural, comprehensive and above all enlightening debate. A debate without taboos, red lines or ideological assumptions”, says CIP in a written comment sent to the Lusa agency.

The reaction of the business confederation follows the report “Reform Pensions in Portugal – For a Sustainable, Suitable and Fair System – a Contract between Generations”, presented on Tuesday by the working group created by the Government to “propose measures to reform social security”.

Although it is still analyzing the more than 600 pages of the report, referring to later “a weighted analysis of the conclusions”, the CIP highlights the importance of opening a debate on the subject, considering that “it would be a mistake to live in the expectation that everything would be okay”.

In this regard, he notes that this is a “debate taking place in several of Portugal’s European counterparts”, to whom he argues that the country can “also go and drink some learning”.

The government has set up a working group to “propose measures to reform social security,” led by economist and professor at Nova Jorge Bravo University.

Its objective is to “define sustainable strategies and concrete measures to ensure the future” of the social security system, taking into account the government’s programme, the recommendations of the Court of Auditors recently published in an audit report and the recommendations of the Green Paper on Social Security (produced by a working group appointed by the previous government).

The final report was submitted to the Government in July and presented on Tuesday, and among the various proposals suggests the creation of new public debt instruments of the retail segment to serve as a supplement to the pension or the adoption of professional automatic membership pension plans, which allow the waiver.

In a reaction sent to Lusa today, however, the government reiterated that it will not proceed with structural reform of social security in this legislature, stating that report is another contribution to the public debate on the subject.

According to official source of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, the report “is a technical and independent study, autonomously prepared by this group, with conclusions and recommendations that are their sole responsibility”.

“ This is another contribution to the national public debate on public social security policies, which will soon be released, and which government, such as any other sovereign bodies or entities will be able to examine,” he adds.

Nevertheless, the government reiterates that “it keeps its commitment not to proceed in the current legislature to a structural reform of the Social Security System” and signals that “nor recent parliamentary proposals and debates nor the presentation of this study have the effect of opening a process that is closed for the government”.