Social Platform Publishes its Analysis on the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan
On 18 November 2020, Social Platform officially launched its publication “Building a Social Europe for all with all. Social Platform views on the future of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan”. This publication is Social Platform’s contribution to the European Commission public consultation “Have your say on reinforcing Social Europe” that is ongoing until 30 November 2020.
It was launched in the context of Social Platform’s virtual event “A Social Europe for all with all. Developing an Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights” co-hosted with Member of the European Parliament Katrin Langensiepen. During this event, we presented key messages from the report and discussed with present institutional speakers and participants how the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan must be designed to fulfil its potential to contribute to Europe’s social recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Find out more about this event here.
The report advocates for the creation of a comprehensive implementation plan for an effective European Pillar of Social Rights that contains ambitious and concrete, measurable targets and timelines for the realisation of each of the 20 principles through:
- EU legislation & policies that establish minimum social standards in Member States;
- Broad inclusion of the 20 principles in the EU’s socio-economic governance through the European Semester process, ensuring a balance of social, economic and environmental priorities;
- Investment in people both at EU and national levels;
- Meaningful involvement of civil society organisations in the realisation and monitoring of the Social Pillar, at EU and national level.
In its introduction, the report highlights the importance of the Action Plan in the context of the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also underlines the importance of creating the right economic governance framework to enable the necessary investment, including social investment, to finance the measures needed to tackle the impact of the pandemic. It also details various features of the Action Plan that we believe are indispensable to ensure that it can play an effective role in ensuring Europe’s social recovery from the pandemic and contributing to building a more socially just Europe for all and with all.
In the main part, the report analyses various foreseen initiatives by the European Commission as well as some that we believe are missing – principle by principle – detailing the demands of Social Platform and its members, the reasons for these demands and how they could be implemented at EU level. Social Platform also developed 20 fact sheets – one per principle detailing our demands on one selected initiative – to showcase some of our demands
Finally, the report highlights the importance of including all thematic policy and legislative initiatives, including those put forward in the context of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, into an overarching post-2020 strategic framework for the EU.
Social Platform will continue advocating for a comprehensive European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and once published, will work to support its full implementation.
