The Prime Minister said on Wednesday that the Government’s Economic and Social Stabilisation Programme will have measures to boost educational opportunities, including higher education, and to increase young people’s access to employment and housing.
António Costa was speaking at the fortnightly debate in Parliament after a speech by Socialist MP Joana Sá Pereira on the issue of young people.
The Prime Minister argued that the current crisis, caused by Covid-19, could not affect the training of young generations, despite the fact that the closure of schools has highlighted the phenomenon of inequality.
“We will have to ensure the necessary increase in educational opportunities, both in secondary and higher education, so that the loss of family income does not affect the educational journey of young people. As with employment support programmes, there will be specific measures aimed at combating youth unemployment, in particular that of qualified young people”, António Costa declared.
According to the Prime Minister, the current crisis “has created a favourable framework for the implementation of affordable rentals for young people with stable contracts”.
“We’re going to have a line specifically aimed at reconverting homes for accessible long-term rental, with a view to increasing the number of homes available on the rental market. We want to make housing more accessible and in better condition for the young,” he said.
António Costa then stressed that this is “the effort that the Government has to make by the end of this year”.
“In the recovery phase, we will have to rely on the energy, capacity, the quality and the qualification of the younger generations. Otherwise, the country will have greater difficulty in recovering”, he added.
In her speech, during the fortnightly debate, Socialist MP Joana Sá Pereira asked the Prime Minister “what the Government will do to ensure that during the difficult period – the difficult winter that is going to pass – any young Portuguese can live and take place in our country”.
“It’s particularly young people who today need to strengthen their responses in terms of job creation, incentives for hiring, new training opportunities, which will allow them to re-enter the labour market, or the first job opportunity.
