The current welfare system does not provide social security
for the greatest number of citizens in need of social care. Twenty-year long
transition and inadequate social policies have led many of our fellow citizens,
neighbors and relatives in the state of poverty or on the verge of poverty. We
are committed to fulfillment of the constitutional principle of social justice
by creating a network of socially responsible factors of the society, such as
state institutions, entrepreneurs, trade union associations, wealthy individuals
and philanthropists, civil society representatives with the obligation to
establish and implement new social arrangements. In order to become a society
free of social discrimination, we must insist that social implications of future
economic and sector policies are to be developed. Developing a welfare card,
defining the poverty line, guaranteeing the subsistence minimum by the state,
full decentralization and depoliticization of the system of social services, and
tax and credit incentives for socially responsible companies and entrepreneurs
are just some of policies required by Montenegrin reality. Solving housing issue
for homeless people by construction of special facilities for public housing,
promoting public private partnerships to build homes for the elderly and persons
with special needs, as well as for people in need without solved housing issue,
education of the youth and formation of voluntary social services are directions
of our new social policy program. Housing and employment policy must have a
strong social component, particularly in relation to persons with disabilities,
working people who were made redundant or long-term unemployed. Full awareness
of the fact that a large number of people belonging to so-called "vulnerable"
groups lives in a small Montenegro poses to all of us a question how solidarity
we are and how often we think about others. Therefore, we ask for dialogue on
how efficient our social system is and how we can make the next decade the
decade of solidarity and social homogeneity.
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