Will the Commission take up a social dimension in 2014?
On October 22, 2013 the European Commission published its Work Programme for 2014. Promoting growth and jobs is said to remain a main focus of the Commission and it should drive the analysis of reforms required at national level as well as European initiatives for economic recovery, job creation and tackling the social consequences of the crisis. The question is now which actions the Commission is going to take to actually deliver on the social challenges Europe is facing today.
The Work Programme points out the economically and socially unacceptably high unemployment rates, in particular for young people, as well as social exclusion and inequality as important challenges. The promotion of the Europe 2020 goals through the European Semester is identified as a key issue for the EU. The programmes under the Multiannual Financial Framework should support the achievement of these goals against the background of the Europe 2020 strive for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, identified as a key priority for 2014. The other key priority mentioned in the Work Programme is the achievement of a more cohesive Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) through the European Semester, underlined by the recent Communication of the Commission on the social dimension of the EMU.
The list of planned actions, presented in the annexes to the work programme, is however addressing the social challenges and key issues in a rather limited way: the only new initiatives put forward for 2014 can be found in the employment field with a package on labour mobility, a communication on job creation in the green economy and an initiative on tackling the gender pay gap. No concrete actions are mentioned on the delivery on the Europe 2020 goal on poverty and social exclusion or on how to go further with the social dimension of the EMU. Contrary to last year also no mention is made of the publication of the Annual Growth Survey of 2015.
The question is therefore if the Commission will take up a true social dimension in its work in 2014, tackling the increase of poverty, social exclusion and inequalities and addressing the intolarably high unemployment rates in a sufficient way.
