The Lehendakari calls for “consensus and dialogue” to face the global challenges of the future

• Iñigo Urkullu has closed the WORKinLan Summit, an international meeting on employment, which has brought together nearly 600 representatives from the academic, political and social spheres

The Lehendakari has advocated tackling future global challenges through “consensus and dialogue”, especially in an area that is “key to our well-being” such as work and employment. Iñigo Urkullu has been in charge of closing the WORKinLan Summit, an international meeting on employment, which has brought together nearly 600 representatives from the academic, political and social spheres over the last few days in Bilbao. The meeting was organised by the Department of Labour and Employment, headed by Idoia Mendia, who was also present at the closing ceremony, and the Iseak Foundation, author of the White Paper on Employment in the Basque Country, which was presented at the sessions. 

Precisely, and regarding the reflections contained in this book, the Lehendakari thanked “the courage” of this work “because it looks the future in the face and is an attempt to anticipate the future, asking the protagonists about their concerns, problems and ways of seeing the future”. 

Three global challenges 

The Lehendakari pointed out that the three global challenges “that are of concern to all of us are the climate and energy challenge; the digital and technological challenge, and the social and demographic challenge”, and that all three will directly and indirectly affect employment, which is why he advocated tackling them in the most effective way “giving a leading role to young people and, of course, to women”. 

On this point, he highlighted the work of the Basque Employment Service-Lanbide, “a fundamental tool”, he said, “for the defence of quality employment” and assured that thanks to this service of “accompaniment and guidance”, every year hundreds of people achieve their objective “which is none other than to be able to find a job that allows them to fulfil their expectations for the future”. 

Iñigo Urkullu indicated that employment and economic recovery are one of the Basque Government's priority objectives and referred to some of the 12 initiatives set up to achieve this. He recalled that last year ended better than expected, while assuring that the objective now is to lower the current 8.5% unemployment rate in the Basque Country. “I am sure that this White Paper will help to achieve higher employment rates and quality jobs in the near future. That is the priority we all share,” he concluded.