News

On Wednesday October 2 2013, the Commission adopted its Communication on the Social Dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) that included a Social Scoreboard. Social Platform welcomes the inclusion of the Scoreboard but without it triggering preventive and corrective action there will be no real social dimension.

Heather Roy, President of Social Platform states “Without the Social Scoreboard triggering action (as happens when there are excessive macroeconomic imbalances) we will never “heal the social scars left behind” by the crisis and the effects of austerity measures. We “owe it to the 26 million unemployed and to the most deprived in our society” as well as to the 120 million people living in poverty to take action and not simply watch and monitor their distress.”  

The Scoreboard and the indicators put forward on household income, inequality, poverty, unemployment and young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs) are a minimum requirement to begin to balance the economic and financial dimension of the EMU with a genuine social dimension. However without any binding mechanism to trigger action economic and financial policies will continue to damage the social tissue of our societies and erode peoples support for the European project.

“We hope that when the Council discusses the Social Scoreboard it will call on the Commission to develop a system that triggers preventative and corrective actions once the social indicators reach a certain value” said Heather Roy.

A letter in that sense was sent to the ministers for employment and social affairs that will meet at the EPSCO Council of October 15.