Zholnovich names European integration requirements for Ukraine in the field of social policy
Kyiv • UNN
The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine seeks to align its social policy with EU standards, focusing on poverty reduction, inclusive services to overcome crisis situations, support for the employment of people with disabilities, and active ageing measures to enable older people to remain economically and socially active.
The Ministry of Social Policy has named the areas of social policy that will be worked on and which are synchronized with European integration requirements and EU standards. This was stated by the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Oksana Zholnovych during a press conference, according to a UNN correspondent.
In the area of social policy, we do not have as many commitments as, for example, in other areas, but today the European Union has a document called the Pillar of Social Rights on its agenda. And actually, if we talk about the principles that are specified there, the first thing is to support people in poverty, that is, there is a certain level beyond which no person in the country should be. At the same time, the targeting of assistance is highly verified in each country
She noted that when a person finds himself in difficult life circumstances, the state should not just give him some support and forget, but form a set of services so that he can overcome this crisis as soon as possible and find himself in a system of independent support.
That is, if we all understand that we go to the hospital to get better as soon as possible, then the same is true in the social sphere. If a person finds themselves in difficult life circumstances, in a crisis, we should not just give them some support and forget about them, so that they will be in this crisis forever. We need to create a set of services for them so that they can overcome this crisis as soon as possible and find themselves in a system of self-sufficiency, economic activity and social inclusion. This is where it is very important for us to develop services. We talked about this a lot at the summit today. This is the path that all other European countries are following
According to her, European countries provide support services, mentors, and support to give people all the tools to get out of difficult life circumstances.
We are also currently working on this issue to increase the number of services in our communities, because we have very few such services. Inclusion, the inclusion of every member of society in public and social life, is also very important. For us, these are people with disabilities, so social services for them, employment, employment support, early rehabilitation and restoration of functioning are very important. This is the set of reforms that we are now taking on board and are already working on very actively
She also emphasized the elderly.
It is not only pensions that we should be talking about. We, like the rest of Europe, are an aging nation, which means that fewer people are being born than are becoming elderly. This means that we are forced, obliged to include these people in their economic and active social life for longer. That is, we have to work to retrain them so that they can work longer, to provide them with active services so that they can engage in various other volunteer and social activities and do not feel excluded from social and public life. These are the areas we will work on and they are synchronized with European integration requirements and EU standards
