Will member states finally take concrete actions to restore the balance?

 
European integration and the completion of the Economic and Monetary Union will not be achieved, if the EU is committing itself to a social dimension in words only, while not taking concrete actions to deliver on this. At the European Council meeting of December 19-20, European heads of state and government will have a discussion following the publication of the Annual Growth Survey 2014 (AGS) and will look at the use of the Social Scoreboard.

We deeply regret that European governance, as reflected in the AGS, still fails to give credibility to Europe 2020 and the European Semester process. Reiterating last year’s priorities of the AGS or agreeing to have a scoreboard of social and employment indicators only as a mere analytical tool of the European Semester, will not solve the ongoing social crisis in Europe. Social Platform therefore calls for a revision of the EU’s macro-economic approach by restoring the balance between social and economic governance.

We need to set the right priorities and take concrete actions to build an EU with a genuine social dimension that delivers on the Europe 2020 poverty and employment targets. We urge the Council to 1) perform an ex-ante and ex-post social and gender impact assessment of policy reforms; 2) meet the request of the European Parliament to identify concrete benchmarks for the indicators in the Social Scoreboard; and 3) ensure equal treatment of the EPSCO and ECOFIN Councils in all European governance processes.

We are convinced that well designed and coherent social policies are at the centre of sustainable growth, and are key to re-establishing the confidence of people in the European project.

Read Social Platform's letter to the European Council of December 19-20

 

2013-12-13