'New welfare system must confirm universal social rights'

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 30 - A new welfare system needs to be able to guarantee the universal social rights outlined by the Constitution, President Sergio Mattarella said on Wednesday receiving at the Quirinale palace the Knights of Labour.
    Highlighting that the credibility of institutions also depends on the protection of dignified living conditions, the president noted that sustainability is not only a key objective for "climate neutrality" but also implies "operating to avoid that the transformation of production and consumption models create deep fractures within the social fabric, ready to transfer to the civil fabric of the community".
    "This is the theme of a new welfare that is able to confirm the universality of the social rights affirmed by the Constitution", noted the president.
    Mattarella also noted that "labour is a powerful tool of integration and I am thinking about the many immigrants and the needs of the productive world.
    "Companies can bring consistency on this ground which is often at the centre of irrational fears when not of excited phobias", he said.
    Mattarella stressed that institutions and public policies need to make "important choices" to "make up for delays", starting with "productivity, tthe public administration's performance, the necessary reforms to increase opportunities".
    The post-COVID National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) is an "extraordinary occasion" which must be "fully grasped", the president also noted in his speech. (ANSA).