Two years ago SIIAEC had the last meeting in Tirana, Albania,  on: “Social security in the view of Economic crises, demographic change and Ethical principles”. Since then the situation has changed deeply. The Pope Francis has published the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii gaudium” (EG) in today’s world with very deep proclamations of the gospel. One of the very strong statements is (EG 53): “Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” And at the end of this paragraph after the pope has mentioned the problem of exclusion and inequality he continued: “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.”

 

Regarding the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis important issues are also the negotiations towards a post-2015 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDGs), which will replace the Millenniums Development Goals (MDGs) after September 2015. Besides the reflections about the current economic system we want therefore to share the idea of “decent work for all” with many other Catholic- Inspired Organisations (see p. 14, Annex 2). Creating decent jobs is seen as an important strategy for eradication of poverty and fighting against injustice and inequality on different levels. Therefore these are among the most debated issues in international politics, and particularly in the ILO, within civil society as well as within the Churches. To promote this strategy the Secretariat of COMECE together with Catholic-Inspired Organisations and under the patronage of Members of the European Parliament in March 2015 had organized a debate on this agenda. The aim was that the final report should become the basis for negotiations, proposes as goal 8 of the future United Nations Development Programme: “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”

The submitted documentation should be a short summary of our efforts on this agenda. Finally we thank all the speakers and participants for their contributions to support the meeting with good ideas and particularly the Austrian team which was very engaged to realize the programme and the documentation (and the donors too). In the line of the proclamation we wish a fruitful use of it and a good continuation of the agenda on several levels.