<p>PORTO, Portugal — Hardship felt during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred European Union leaders to add muscle to the bloc’s safeguards for its 450 million citizens in welfare, jobs and gender equality.</p>
<p>But not everybody’s impressed by their good intentions, which are non-binding for the bloc’s 27 governments.</p>
<p>EU leaders held a summit in Porto, Portugal on Friday to discuss how they can ensure “equal opportunities for all and that no one is left behind.”</p>
<p>The plans and promises contained in a summit draft declaration on social rights, obtained by The Associated Press, are ambitious.</p>
<p>“As Europe gradually recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the priority will be to move from protecting to creating jobs and to improve job quality,” the declaration states.</p>
<p>The leaders say they are “committed to reducing inequalities, defending fair wages, fighting social exclusion and tackling poverty.”</p>
<p>They also vow to “step up efforts to fight discrimination and work actively to close gender gaps in employment, pay and pensions.”</p>
<p>However, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, was critical of the plan, saying in a statement it is “insufficiently ambitious.”</p>
<p>That’s because countries which miss targets in the plan suffer no consequences. Also, there is no mechanism for Europeans to hold their governments accountable if they don’t abide by the program.</p>
<p>Already, 11 EU countries last week reminded European authorities that social policy is set by sovereign national governments, not Brussels — suggesting they don’t feel obliged to comply with the program.</p>
<p>The European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 45 million members in 38 European countries, rebuked the 27 EU leaders, too.</p>
<p>Its general secretary, Luca Visentini, said that “less talk and more action (is) needed” from governments.</p>
<p>“We have to be very clear that legislation and money are the only things that can really make a difference. All the rest is blah blah,” Visentini said in a statement.</p>
