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On 19 June the ministers for economic and financial affairs will discuss and adopt new broad economic policy guidelines (BEPGs) at the meeting of the ECOFIN Council. Back in March, we welcomed the call for “quality, affordable and sustainable services and benefits”, and for taking into account the social impact of legislation included in the Commission’s proposal for the new BEPGs. However, we believe that the proposal can and should be improved to ensure the BEPGs can fully accommodate the achievement of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth throughout the European Union, in line with the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy.

As these guidelines will also have an important employment and social impact, we are calling on the ECOFIN ministers to:

1. Support investment in ambitious integrated employment and social policies. This includes maintaining and improving investments in adequate social protection systems, investing in social, care, health and education services beyond infrastructure, as well as safeguarding and upgrading budgets for measures pursuing social investment.
2. Perform ex-ante social and gender impact assessments of all structural reforms, particularly of the labour market and social systems. Such reforms should improve the inclusiveness of labour markets and the adequacy and performance of social systems.
3. Involve all relevant stakeholders, including social NGOs, in a meaningful and structured way in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies that may have a social impact. Such involvement must take place at all policy levels including the European, national, regional and local levels.

In a previous stage of the process, we sent proposals for amendments to the Economic Policy Committee and to the economic and financial affairs attachés in the permanent representations of  all member states. We therefore hope our concerns will be reflected in the final text of the guidelines.

Read our full letter to the ECOFIN Council