Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Global cities
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

A New Social Agenda For The Next Five Years

Erika Mezger 2nd July 2014

Erika Mezger, New Social Agenda

Erika Mezger

Today Europe is boredom… it is submerged by numbers and without soul. As long as Europe cares more about fishing rights than human beings swimming in our sea’s Europe has no soul (Renzi 2014).

The same Prime Minister of Italy states rightly “Europe is the answer, not the problem”. So what has to be done to make sure that the social integrity of Europe will be further developed and strengthened? Based on the findings of the current mid-term review of the EU 2020 strategy some strategic guidelines are needed to frame and refocus the policy agenda.

There is increasing divergence in the performance of Member States and increasing social inequalities. And the social consequences are clearly visible.

Inequalities are underplayed greatly in the original strategy. Poverty is of course quite prominent but this is a more specific and limited issue. Inequality in the mid-term review document is mentioned as “increased difficulty of addressing the challenges facing the European Economy” – thus purely a pragmatic political concern. One issue of inequality is that it can adventure social cohesion but more importantly it threatens the existence of the market economy – see Marx, Keynes and now Pickety etc..

In order to tackle this issue the EU has to embrace the understanding that inequalities are bad for capitalism. It could for instance introduce an inequality goal as part of the European Semester (ES) part. The EU is a vital player in the potential redressing of inequalities. Wealth and inheritance taxes can only be dealt with in the global context as is the case for tax havens. This is also very close to home – how can we permit Lichtenstein and Luxembourg?

In this context the social dialogue is essential in maintaining some balance in the distribution of income and wealth. Agreements about wages and working conditions based on social dialogue – the dialogue between organised labour and organised employers – are likely to have a better outcome for distribution than atomistic capitalism.

The focus of the debate around risks of poverty and social exclusion has almost exclusively been upon the income dimension. For many “at risk groups” but particularly young people, isolated older people and the long-term unemployed, public policies must become more concerned with promoting involvement in civil society and social engagement. In some ways this amounts to refocusing and renewal of the principles behind the Social Investment Package (SIP/2013) and the Beyond GDP Initiative.

Social progress demands greater attention to support for families with children, especially through investment in affordable and high quality childcare. Early investment in the well-being of children is crucial for their development and transition into adulthood. A suite of family policies building on universally available support to families with children is the foundation of the most successful systems.

The welfare and future productivity of children is the most important strategic long-term issue for Europe. It is the only sustainable means of dealing with the enormous competitive challenges facing Europe and which will guarantee real social inclusion via social investment.

Europe is not on track to reach the employment goals of EU 2020 either. Achieving the goal of EU 2020 demands greater involvement of women, people with disabilities, migrants and older people in the EU workforce. Much remains to be done to enable and promote working by those aged 60 and over.

Poor health is a major barrier to participation in the workforce but has attracted less attention than it deserves. It is a difficult area involving healthcare professionals, employers, and public employment services but there are examples of promising practice and successful initiatives. There also appears to be a need for clearer discussion of both the mechanisms and merits of service provision in public, non-for-profit or private sectors. This requires a more coherent policy on (social) services of general interest.

Youth unemployment is tackled by the Youth Employment Package (2012) which included the Youth Guarantee, the European Alliance for Apprenticeships, the Quality Framework for Traineeships, and measures to reduce obstacles to mobility among young people. The aim is that all young people under 25 get a good-quality offer of a job, an apprenticeship, a traineeship or the chance to continue their education within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. There is an urgency to efficiently roll out the youth guarantee programmes, and that a personalised approach and preventive measures are an essential part of them. In at least eight Member States, where youth unemployment is particularly high and where there are serious implementation problems, more decisive action is needed. If the monitoring by the ES sending country specific recommendations (CSR’s) to the eight countries will help to improve delivery is at least questionable.

A recent paper shows that CSR’s issued in the context of the ES are often not very specific and frequently not implemented. Small countries appear to overreact but only in terms of process not outcome. Process over outcome is maybe the main criticism – and it is the most annoying aspect of EU.

To give Europe its soul back “something different” seems to be needed.

Erika Mezger

Erika Mezger is Deputy Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).

You are here: Home / Politics / A New Social Agenda For The Next Five Years

Most Popular Posts

Russia,information war Russia is winning the information warAiste Merfeldaite
Nanterre,police Nanterre and the suburbs: the lid comes offJoseph Downing
Russia,nuclear Russia’s dangerous nuclear consensusAna Palacio
Belarus,Lithuania A tale of two countries: Belarus and LithuaniaThorvaldur Gylfason and Eduard Hochreiter
retirement,Finland,ageing,pension,reform Late retirement: possible for many, not for allKati Kuitto

Most Recent Posts

social democracy,nation-state Social democracy versus the nativist rightJan Zielonka
chemical,European Union Which comes first—Big Toxics’ profits or health?Vicky Cann
Russia,journalists,Ukraine,target Ukraine: journalists in Russia’s sightsKelly Bjorkland and Simon Smith
European Union,enlargement,Balkans EU enlargement—back to the futureEmilija Tudzarovska
European Health Data Space,EHDS,Big Tech Fostering public research or boosting Big Tech?Philip Freeman and Jan Willem Goudriaan

Other Social Europe Publications

strategic autonomy Strategic autonomy
Bildschirmfoto 2023 05 08 um 21.36.25 scaled 1 RE No. 13: Failed Market Approaches to Long-Term Care
front cover Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship

ETUI advertisement

The future of remote work

The 12 chapters collected in this volume provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the impact and the future trajectories of remote work, from the nexus between the location from where work is performed and how it is performed to how remote locations may affect the way work is managed and organised, as well as the applicability of existing legislation. Additional questions concern remote work’s environmental and social impact and the rapidly changing nature of the relationship between work and life.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound Talks: housing

In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound’s senior research manager, Hans Dubois, about the issues that feed into housing insecurity in Europe and the actions that need to be taken to address them. Together, they analyse findings from Eurofound’s recent Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe report, which presents data from Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents on various indicators of housing security and living conditions.


LISTEN HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The summer issue of the Progressive Post magazine by FEPS is out!

The Special Coverage of this new edition is dedicated to the importance of biodiversity, not only as a good in itself but also for the very existence of humankind. We need a paradigm change in the mostly utilitarian relation humans have with nature.

In this issue, we also look at the hazards of unregulated artificial intelligence, explore the shortcomings of the EU's approach to migration and asylum management, and analyse the social downside of the EU's current ethnically-focused Roma policy.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI European Collective Bargaining Report 2022 / 2023

With real wages falling by 4 per cent in 2022, workers in the European Union suffered an unprecedented loss in purchasing power. The reason for this was the rapid increase in consumer prices, behind which nominal wage growth fell significantly. Meanwhile, inflation is no longer driven by energy import prices, but by domestic factors. The increased profit margins of companies are a major reason for persistent inflation. In this difficult environment, trade unions are faced with the challenge of securing real wages—and companies have the responsibility of making their contribution to returning to the path of political stability by reducing excess profits.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube