Helping the individual to be the protagonist of social policy

Abstract

It is certainly an honour and a joy for me to bring to this important meeting the greetings and the image of the European Parliament and of the parliamentarians of the twelve countries which make up the European Community. I believe that such meetings are essential, both for deepening the relations between the representatives of the people and between the peoples themselves, and for examining thoroughly themes which have certainly long been considered essential to modem life and which are, however, in dire need of close examination and actualization. It is in this direction that I want to steer some thorough, essential considerations, especially in the first part of my speech. I think it is important above all to remember that the essential goals of a social policy must be those that guarantee in society, in any society, the conditions for full self-expression. Planning a social policy means giving more freedom so that in society the individual can be himself, so that he can live consistently with his own cultural, religious, spiritual choices, so that he can participate and be the protagonist in the phenomena of social development. The goal of a social policy is therefore not that of putting the action of the state or of any central administrative body before the initiative, the freedom, the responsibility of the single person or group. The aim of a social policy is exactly the opposite, i.e. that of helping the single person or group to take upon itself freedom and responsibility.