News

This week was full between energizing discussions with our members during our General Assembly and Steering Group on one side and advocacy meetings with the European Parliament, Commissioner Andor and the Chair of the Social Protection Committee on the other.

As I have been writing for the last few weeks, the issue we are currently working on is the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). You may wonder: “when you see the social trends getting worse month after month and poverty increasing in two thirds of Member States, why is the EMU the right thing at the moment to focus on?”

Firstly, it is a hot issue. For EU leaders the EMU has been the blue print of the ongoing austerity measures for the last 3 years. Whilst from our side, it is also a hot issue: according to a Gallup survey, more than half of Europeans (51%) believe that austerity policies have failed to fight the crisis. Secondly, we need to ensure that we tackle the root of the problem. In all the meetings we held this week, I heard the same soundtrack. There is far too much poverty, too much inequality, and too much work poverty in Europe. Instead of being at the top of the priority list, these issues are absent from the debates at European and national level. The focus instead is on traditional scapegoats for problems in our society: Roma integration in France and Germany and access to social welfare for migrants in the UK, Greece and Italy…. when in fact poverty is the root problem.

We believe that social policy is not just about social justice but also about better economic policy. We want to develop a social protection floor and decent work for all workers in Europe.

Too many people have come out of the crisis in a worse social situation – this is what people should be talking about. It is not a footnote and should be the headline of all EU initiatives: it is not acceptable to have one European in four living in poverty.

Lets engage!

Pierre Baussand, Director