The Economy Minister admitted today that some areas may start to become undefined before Easter, but said that the Government still does not know which ones, because it wants to decide in a safe and informed way, based on the consultations it has been carrying out.
“Experts said that there are conditions to do something before Easter. What and at what pace is that a decision that has not yet been taken”, said Pedro Siza Vieira at a press conference, after an extraordinary meeting of social consultation.
Without putting forward dates or specifying the sectors that will open first, the Deputy Minister of Economy stated that the de-confinement process will be “gradual and progressive”, depending on the geographic evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The minister assured that the Government will take into account, in the elaboration of the deconfinement plan, the epidemiological, economic and social recommendations it has received in the consultations it made to specialists, political parties and today to the social partners.
"We are listening as much as possible to gather opinions, to make a decision, which, in the final analysis, will be political," he said.
According to the minister, this "is a difficult exercise" and added that "the great difficulty has to do with the fact that there are no rules and absolute certainties to act."
Today's meeting of the Standing Committee for Social Dialogue aimed to hear the position on the distrust that should be announced by the Government on Thursday.
The Economy Minister told journalists that the social partners expressed their desire for the de-confinement process to start as soon as possible, but without advances and setbacks.
Measures to support the economy were also discussed at the meeting and Siza Vieira said that the Government will reinforce and expand the support that is currently in force, for workers and companies.
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