European Pillar of Social Rights
Authors: Sebastiano Sabato, Slavina Spasova, Francesco Corti, Bart Vanhercke Publisher: European Economic and Social Committee
This study on behalf of the Workers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee explores the possibility of establishing three policy instruments to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and rebalance the economic and social dimensions of the E(M)U. First, Member States should put their money where their mouth is and live up to the expectations raised by the EPSR, by (a) “socialising” the EU budget during the negotiations on the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework; and (b) creating a (social) budget for the Eurozone. Second, the report argues in favour of the set-up of an automatic macro-economic stabilization instrument for the EMU in the form of an equivalent European Unemployment Benefit Scheme. Thirdly, it proposes to launch a “Social Imbalances Procedure” (SImP) that would entail (a) identifying national social imbalances (“critical situations”) through a revisited Social Scoreboard; (b) the elaboration of Multi-annual National Action Plans, providing technical and/or financial support for implementing social investment, e.g. through the new Reform Support Programme; (c) a strictly conditional increase in the EU contribution in the ESF+ or the triggering of a “silver rule” for national social investment spending; and finally (d) monitoring of implementation through the European Semester Country Reports.
Authors:Bea Cantillon Publisher: EU Visions
The EPSR marks a potentially important paradigm shift in European social policy making: given there has now been some harmonisation of policy instruments and convergence on broadly stated objectives, it has been proposed that the focus should shift to principles and social rights to be pursued on behalf of European citizens. Until the 1980s harmonisation of social security was the leading concern of those interested in the social dimension of Europe. However as national systems evolved and became more complex and as the Union grew larger, and therefore more diverse, it slowly dawned that harmonisation was neither possible nor desirable. Gradually, the ambition to develop common policy instruments was replaced with an ambition to develop common policy objectives. This new approach left it to Member States to decide which policy instruments and strategies to deploy, based on their own needs and preferences. In other words, social Europe was to be shaped by different national policies, all directed at common European objectives: a shift from governance of ‘inputs’ to governance of ‘outcomes’. A number of common social objectives were agreed, with a view to supporting the convergence process, these included the eradication of poverty. A loose, open approach to policy was developed and a set of social indicators was defined for the purpose of measuring the progress made towards the social objectives (Atkinson et al., 2002). Subsequently, the bold but vague strategic social policy goal of ‘eradication of poverty’ set out in the Lisbon Strategy was replaced by the more concrete Europe 2020 targets: a reduction of 20 million in the number of persons living in poverty, jobless households or material deprivation. Regrettably, however, this approach has failed to make real progress, at national or European level (Cantillon, Goedemé & Hills, 2019).
Publisher: Publications Office of the European Union Date: March 2021
The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan outlines concrete actions to further implement the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights as a joint effort by the Members States and the EU, with an active involvement of social partners and civil society. It also proposes employment, skills and social protection headline targets for the EU to be achieved by 2030.
With the Pillar Action Plan, the Commission sets out its ambition for a strong Social Europe that focuses on jobs and skills for the future and paves the way for a fair, inclusive and resilient socio-economic recovery.
Authors: EAPN- European Anti-Poverty Network Publisher: EAPN- European Anti-Poverty Network Date: February 2021
This document comprises EAPN’s assessment of the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (ASGS) 2021 and of the EC Proposal for a Joint Employment Report (JER) 2021. The introduction to this document refers to EAPN’s work on the Europe 2020 Strategy as of 2010 and the European Pillar of Social Rights, signed on 17 November 2017 as an Inter-institutional Proclamation by the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission. It sets the scene by providing summary information on EAPN’s assessment of last year’s European Semester cycle before highlighting the numerous effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on the main deliverables, processes, timelines and actors of the European Semester 2021. The second part contains the key messages and EAPN’s more specific recommendations. The third part is devoted to the assessment of the ASGS 2021 and the fourth part to the analysis of the JER 2021. Both parts are subdivided by a first section on opportunities and positive hooks for future policy development and a second section which presents EAPN’s concerns.
Authors: Biletta, Isabella Publisher: Eurofound Date: Dec 2019
Casual work, both intermittent and on-call, contributes to labour market flexibility and is therefore increasingly used across Europe. In some countries, practices go beyond the use of casual employment contracts to include other types of contracts and forms of self-employment. While it offers some advantages for both employers and workers, it is often discussed by policymakers at EU and national levels due to the observed negative consequences it has for some workers. Impacts include economic insecurity and unpredictability of working time, which in turn affect workers’ health, well-being and social security. From a labour market perspective, casual work raises concerns about decent social inclusion of vulnerable groups, labour market segmentation and more general trends towards fragmentation of work and brain drain. Some policy responses have already been implemented to tackle these issues; further policy pointers are flagged in the report.
Publisher: Etui Date: 2019
Benchmarking Working Europe, the annual stock-take of European economic, labour market and social affairs is published today by the European Trade Union Institute. This year’s report calls for action to stimulate investment, as well as reforms to fiscal rules to allow policy to play a more active role in stabilising economies and securing sustainable growth. Above all, inequality and insecurity must be tackled through reversing deregulation and reviving collective bargaining. Benchmarking also flags up the longer term challenges of the four ‘megatrends’ of climate and demographic change, digitalisation and globalisation. Published annually since 2001, Benchmarking Working Europe puts worker’s concerns firmly at the centre of its analysis and policy proposals. The four chapters analyse the areas of economic growth, labour market changes, wage developments and worker’s participation.
Authors: Ramon Peña Casas, Dalila Ghailani, Slavina Spasova, Bart Vanherke Publisher: European Commission Date: May 2019
Getting people into quality jobs is key to achieving the European Union’s ambition of fostering upward convergence in living standards across all Member States. However, while working is generally considered as the best way to avoid poverty, this is not sufficient for almost one out of ten European workers. This report produced by the European Social Policy Network (ESPN) shows that addressing in-work poverty remains a key challenge— in spite of the wide array of existing policies and policy reforms underway. Beyond the damaging consequences for European societies, in-work poverty signals a fundamental social unfairness: working is not a guarantee for avoiding poverty.
Authors: Hurley, John; Vacas‑Soriano, Carlos; Muraille, Marcel; Lantto, Eero Publisher: Eurofound Date: Nov 2018
A living wage has been defined as a measure of income that allows an employee a basic but socially acceptable standard of living. In recent decades, living wage initiatives have emerged in a small number of mainly English-speaking countries, including the UK and Ireland. These initiatives have developed in response to the inadequacy of income for many working households reliant on existing statutory minimum wage rates. They set out a methodology for calculating a wage that would allow wage earners and their dependents to live with dignity, in line with the fair wage provisions set out in the European Pillar of Social Rights adopted in 2017. This report aims to provide policymakers with a practical guide to the living wage concept.
Authors: Weber, Tina; Hurley, John; Mandl, Irene; Bisello, Martina; Vacas‑Soriano, Carlos Publisher: Eurofound Date: 2020
Prior to the unfolding of the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis, Europe’s labour market recovery was bringing the EU employment rate close to its EU2020 target of 75%. Although unique in its specific nature, lessons from previous crisis have shown that retaining workers’ attachment to the labour market and, where possible, enhancing skills are important ways to ensure a rapid recovery. Employment growth has been consistently weakest in mid-paid jobs – most noticeably during recessions – and consistently strongest in well-paid jobs. Stability in levels of atypical work is masking a rise in precarious work for certain groups where growing numbers of workers are on ‘other’ or ‘no contracts’. The growth of different types of non-standard contracts is leading to deeper divisions in EU labour markets between well-protected workers and those with limited access to social protection and employment rights. This is particularly the case for the growing numbers of those in ‘compound non-standard’ employment (having a mix of non-standard work statuses: for example, temporary and part-time, self-employed and part-time)…
Copyrighted articles of doctrine
Baute S., Meuleman B., Abts K., Swyngedouw M, (2018). Measuring attitudes towards Social Europe: A multidimensional approach. Social Indicators Research, 2018, 137, 1, 353–378.
Although the notion of ‘Social Europe’ can refer to different principles and policy options, most research narrows down attitudes towards Social Europe to a unidimensional construct. In this study, we instead propose a multi-dimensional approach, and contribute to the literature in three ways. First, we elaborate the notion of ‘Social Europe’ conceptually, and distinguish between the decision-making level for social policy, European social citizenship, harmonization, member-state solidarity and interpersonal solidarity. Second, analysing the 2014 Belgian National Election Study by means of confirmatory factor analysis we evidence that citizens indeed have distinct attitudes towards the policy principles and instruments of Social Europe. Although these attitudinal dimensions are interrelated, they cannot be reduced to a single Social Europe factor, meaning that citizens differentiate in their attitudes between various aspects of Social Europe. In addition, our research indicates that member-state solidarity is the primary aspect of Social Europe in public opinion, whereas the feature that has received most scholarly attention in empirical research to date—the preferred decision-making level for social policy—cannot be considered as a key component of attitudes towards Social Europe. Third, we investigate whether citizens with different educational levels conceptualize Social Europe similarly using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Results indicate that the attitudinal factor structure of Social Europe is largely equivalent among lower and higher-educated citizens. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1587-3
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