Speech by President of the Government at Third Sector Summit on child poverty

Headquarters of CaixaForum, Madrid

Good day to you all. Madam Minister for Health, María Luisa Carcedo; High Commissioner for the Fight against Childhood Poverty, María Glos; Mr President of the Spanish Childhood Platform, Adolfo Lacuesta; Mr Managing Director of the Telefónica Foundation, José María Sanz Magallón; Mr Deputy Managing Director of the La Caixa Banking Foundation, Marc Simón.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights. That is stated in Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as you all know. This is a globally recognised proclamation that enshrines the aspiration that everyone, men and women alike, should be subject to the same respect and consideration, whatever their sex, place of birth, race or social origin.

It is true that the best-known part of Article One of the Declaration is this, but it is rounded off with a less well-known phrase, but one which is very important to advocate in these times. The article continues by saying, "they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood".

However, as Abraham Lincoln said, human beings are born equal and that is the last time they are as such.

A good part of our life paths - education, work, sentimental, emotional - are conditioned by our socio-economic origins. Whether you are born into a wealthy family, a poor family, a family with educational resources, with culture, with books on the shelves, or in another that has not had the opportunity to accumulate these goods, comes down to chance. And if we do not intervene in time, this undoubtedly marks, to a great extent, the opportunities we are going to have in life and the achievements we may attain.

Consequently, the fraternity alluded to in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is now more commonly known as solidarity, which is, in short, the response to these situations.

Fraternity, solidarity, is the fuel, to put it another way, to combat expressions of inequality that lead to the chance of being born into a family, a poor family or a family with or without cultural assets.

In a developed world, this fraternity, this solidarity, is embodied, more than in any other institution, in the Welfare State.

States must strive to correct social inequalities, above all, social inequalities at birth, that may then hold back the lives of people from a very early age, placing the most vulnerable in a clearly disadvantaged situation.

Accumulated knowledge shows us what we can do, which is why it is crucial to invest from a very early age. This government has very clear that we must invest in children and, in particular in the fight against childhood poverty and social exclusion at a very young age.

As Spaniards, as citizens of this country, we cannot tolerate Spain's position among the countries with the highest at-risk-of-poverty rates among children in the European Union.

In 2016, the latest year for which we have complete figures from the European Union, our country had an at-risk-of-poverty rate among the under-18, which you are well aware of as you work in the sector, of 29.7%, almost 10 points above the European average. In that year, only countries such as Romania and Bulgaria had a higher at-risk-of-poverty rate than ours.

It is true that this figure fell to 28.3% in 2017, but we continue to have figures that are absolutely intolerable, far too high for a country such as ours.

The Spanish households with the highest poverty rate, you are also aware of this, are precisely households with children, especially single-parent families, but we should state that, above all, they are single-mother families, and, more particularly, single-mother large families.

And if that were not enough, children suffer from poverty for a particularly long time. To put it another way, our Welfare State - which it is clear has decisively contributed to improving the lives of Spanish people and to helping many vulnerable groups - has not functioned effectively enough, and we must acknowledge this and say so, in protecting children. The figures are out there; inter-generational inequality is, above all, too high, in our country, in relative terms compared with other European Union countries.

And that must change. The government is fully aware of this situation; fully aware of how this appears and the High Commissioner said this before that by creating that position to fight childhood poverty, to whom we owe the initiative to hold this summit.

The High Commissioner has, among other responsibilities, the duty to promote the actions of Central Government, in other words, in a cross-cutting fashion, to fight childhood poverty, by establishing collaborative and cooperative relations with other tiers of government, particularly with local authorities, which have the jurisdiction over social services.

We must do this through proposing effective action. And in order to be effective, it is necessary to have a true diagnostic of the situation. And there is no-one better than you to help us see this reality clearly.

Your work on the front line in the fight against the consequences of poverty in the lives of boys and girls in our country must serve to guide us, to inspire us in designing active policies that guarantee the rights of children, and allow them to fully develop their potential. And to achieve that, this is not only a summit to combat childhood poverty, but a Third Sector Summit to combat childhood poverty.

Together with municipal social services, which I wish to pay tribute to and acknowledge. We often talk about the Long-term Care Act, which is undoubtedly very important, but on many occasions we forget to talk about the importance of social services, and Third Sector bodies that carry out crucial work in the daily support of people and families at risk of exclusion, with particular dedication to children and adolescents growing up in these families.

The magnitude and intensity of your activity grew during the toughest times of the economic crisis which, unfortunately, many households are still suffering from and translated into an increase in social needs, and in a change in profile of those in need, as you have told me on many occasions when I have had the chance to meet with you, and in the type of service required.

That is why this government considers it is unavoidable to establish a channel of communication, particularly during the recent very tough years for the most vulnerable in our society.

We feel it is fundamental, essential and vital to be aware of, listen, learn, and act in line with your experiences to effectively fight poverty in a coordinated fashion. And also, and particularly, to try and prevent this which, in short, is what our public authorities must try and do.

The aim of this summit is precisely to draw on the experiences, knowledge and support of the Social Third Sector that works with children. The aim is to reflect together on the way to improve living conditions and life opportunities of boys, girls and adolescents in our country. The reduction and prevention of childhood poverty constitute two of these inescapable commitments, and I want to underline this, of this government.

This is a question of social justice, a question of essential justice. That is why in our Draft Budget for 2019 we have included an item that will allow us to double the amount of transfers per dependent child in severe poverty. And I also want to say to you that in January, when we present the Budget to the Lower House, this commitment will be redoubled, it will be greater than doubling these benefits for dependent children.

We will also include something very important, which is an item to make progress towards the universal and progressive financing of education for 0-3 year olds. This is something we must do together with the regional governments, and the Government of Spain will not turn its back on this.

We are going to make a clear and decisive commitment to the gradual universalisation of education for 0-3 year olds and also to increasing grants on socio-economic grounds. To do that, we will take our Draft Budget to Parliament and fight for its approval.

Dear friends, the creation of the High Commissioner for the Fight against Childhood Poverty was, as you know, a key commitment by the Government of Spain from the outset, as the High Commissioner mentioned before. And I thank dear Glos for bringing us here today to officially establish this channel of communication, although I am aware that the channel has been open right from the beginning, first with María Luisa and then with you, heading up the High Commission.

The discussions and proposals that come out of here today, in particular, from each one of the round tables you have signed up for, will serve, I believe, to guide the government's actions. I feel that these talks you are going to have are very important, because they will guide the government's actions in a series of political areas of vital importance in the fight against childhood poverty.

So, with your support, the government is also working on promoting the constitution of the Alliance against Childhood Poverty. This is a genuine country alliance that will structure a joint and lasting commitment. If a State policy had to exist, I believe that this would be the one, above any party battles, that will forge the joint and lasting commitment, as I said before, of all the important stakeholders in our society, whether companies, foundations, Third Sector bodies, academic institutions and, of course, the whole of our public authorities under the leadership of the High Commissioner.

The goal of this alliance is to design, promote and put into practice a broad spectrum of initiatives designed to fight inequalities that affect children in a vulnerable situation. The government has done many things over these last six months; we have addressed the problem of unaccompanied minors, and poured financial resources into those regions where they were most needed.

We have in our portfolio, and the Minister for Health and Social Policies is well aware of this, everything related to a comprehensive law to fight the violence being suffered by young people, and hence, to protect and keep children safe. In short, inequalities that threaten to leave a profound mark on the adult lives of these boys and girls, thus limiting their full development if we don't intervene on time.

We must also play our part in achieving this goal and any form of help is good. Just look, today, for example, the Lower House of Parliament will vote on a Royal Decree-Law to reverse, to a large extent, the cuts in education made by the previous government, and we are also going to continue doing things on other education issues. We must all put our shoulders to the wheel, remembering that any help is positive.

The joint participation of public and private stakeholders in the design, and the funding - some fundraising also needs to be done - by companies, and in the governance which achieves many good things as well, must be acknowledged. The governance and supervision of the alliance will allow initiatives to be implemented that offer vital opportunities to children who are born and grow up in underprivileged environments.

In short, we want to promote what seems to have failed in these 10 years of economic crisis, such as social mobility, equal opportunities, equal treatment and non-discrimination. We also have to talk, above all when listening to the discourse of hatred, about how to inoculate against this in a good part of society, as well as about non-discrimination in our country.

Many of these initiatives will have their origin in the discussions, in the talks that will take place here today, through your contributions, as I said, to the debates in each of the round tables on care and conciliation, education, healthcare and residential exclusion.

Housing is also an issue that I can guarantee to you that the Government of Spain will act on shortly.

This alliance will be, as I said before, a national alliance; have no doubts that its national scope is central to achieving our goal. And in the profoundly pro-European spirit of this government that I mentioned before, and with the conviction that the fight against inequality and poverty are now, more than ever, challenges of a global nature as well, we are going to head up the initiative designed to establish a form of Children's Guarantee within the framework of the new European Social Fund Plus.

This initiative is framed in the negotiations of the new Multiannual Financial Framework for the period 2021-2027 that has been promoted by the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament, and has been approved by the European Parliament with a broad consensus.

In the coming months, discussions and negotiations will take place at the European Council, also at the Commission and Parliament, to define the basic final characteristics of this initiative. And I can guarantee that the government will support the ambitious involvement of the European institutions in the fight against childhood poverty on our continent.

I can guarantee that in this government you will find an ally in your homes and in your fight. So, I encourage you to make contributions, let us know your thoughts, in the debates today, and reaffirm our commitment, as indeed you are already doing.

Fighting childhood poverty is the project on which we must all work together for justice and dignity as a country.

That is all. Thank you very much.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation