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Alongside the communication on the results of the Europe 2020 public consultation, the European Commission has published its proposal for revised integrated guidelines for both economic and employment policies. However regarding the employment guidelines, semantics have clouded the water and created vagueness as to what kind of employment and social policies the Commission is committed to. For example, the Commission makes reference to “quality” employment. At Social Platform, we believe quality employment includes establishing adequate minimum wages in all member states and raising awareness of the ongoing support needed for people from vulnerable backgrounds to enter the labour market. But the EU-steered structural reforms of the past years encouraged the current trend of pushing people into poor quality work with zero-hour contracts and low wages, directly challenging efforts to create quality employment opportunities across the EU. We would therefore like to know what the Commission believes “quality” employment to entail.

Confusion over semantics also exists in other sections of the integrated guidelines, such as in the eight guideline on “Ensuring fairness, combating poverty and promoting equal opportunities” in member states’ social protection systems. We are concerned about the Commission’s interpretation of “fairness”. Indeed, Commission rhetoric no longer refers to social justice – as the United Nations does – but to social fairness, implying a certain amount of subjectivity. The Commission must clarify these terms of reference before recommendations can be put to member states for achieving the goals of the integrated guidelines. Similarly, we would like clarification of what is intended by “modernising” social protection systems, and whether the Commission’s focus on “targeted” social policies will mean a “no” to the universality of such systems.

Finally, we call into question the transparency of the process surrounding the integrated guidelines for employment policies that currently seems to be disconnected from that for the review of Europe 2020. While the previous guidelines of 2010 were developed on the basis of the Europe 2020 Strategy with the aim of supporting its implementation, the Commission is now presenting the guidelines before we have even seen any proposal for a reformed strategy.

Until the Commission addresses these causes for concern, the substance of the EU’s strategy of jobs and growth – whether smart, sustainable and inclusive, or just for the sake of box-ticking – will remain swamped in semantics.

For further information please contact Herlinde Vanhooydonck, Policy & Advocacy Officer.