17/09/2015
The cooperation project financed by the European Union held the EU-China High Level Forum on Social Protection Reform in Beijing this week.
The International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) is participating in a cooperation project financed by the European Union with the aim of developing social protection in the Asian giant.
A high-level summit took place this week, attended by the Secretary of State for Social Security, Tomás Burgos, who reviewed the agenda of reforms that the Spanish Government has implemented in recent years to respond to the challenges of the demographic challenge and the sustainability of the system. The director of the Public Administration and Social Affairs area of the FIIAPP, Agustín Fernández, was also present at the meeting.
The European Union has launched this cooperation programme for the reform of social protection in China, the main objective of which is to promote maximum social equality between its population at central and local level. The project is being developed through activities in the seven EU member states that requested to participate in the consortium, including Spain (Belgium, Poland, Germany, France, Romania and Italy are also involved).
Specific objectives include strengthening the country’s institutional capacity to develop policies aimed at strengthening the legal framework for social assistance, and that this may contribute to the promulgation of a social assistance law.
The issues of interest to China are, broadly speaking, retirement pensions for employees; the articulation of the impact of migration movements from rural to urban areas; and the coordination of different pension systems.
Another focus is on the pension financing system, taking into account the forecasts of ageing and the need to guarantee the viability of the system and on social protection understood as assistance, especially for the elderly.