SOLIDAR: Austerity pressure on social policies and services continues
A one-sided focus on austerity policies continues to feed the downward pressure on social policies and services in EU Member States, according to the upcoming report of SOLIDAR’s 2015 Social Progress Watch Initiative (SPWI). The members of our pan-European network of NGOs use this tool to monitor and analyse the social dimension of national policies within the framework of the European Semester. This year’s findings illustrate the tangible connection between austerity policies and the erosion of social safeguards in the European social model.
The country studies of the 2015 SPWI highlight the negative impact of European austerity measures on access to and the quality of health and social services. Rather than investing in these services as a prerequisite for upward social convergence and inclusive economic growth, the Country-Specific Recommendations of the 2014 European Semester evaluate them from a budgetary and fiscal perspective, i.e. urging EU Member States to increase the cost-effectiveness of their health and social services.
SOLIDAR EU Strategy Groups in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom report a one-sided focus on the cost-effectiveness of health and social services. In each of these countries, our Strategy Groups report that this one-sided policy focus creates a downward pressure on access to and the quality of these services, thereby straining the capacity of the latter to act as social safeguards in times of crisis.
The downward pressure on health and social services is especially troublesome in countries faced with an ongoing social crisis caused by the slow and disappointingly weak recovery of the European labour market. SOLIDAR EU Strategy Groups operating in Croatia, France, Italy, and Spain report that these services have proved themselves to be effective social safeguards against the worst effects of the economic crisis. As such, the one-sided austerity measures of the 2014 European Semester are eroding the social safeguards that have shielded many from poverty and social exclusion.
Moreover, the country studies of the 2015 SOLIDAR SPWI reveal that the work of volunteers is increasingly relied on as an alternative to maintain access to and the quality of public services. As public institutions are confronted with the 2014 European Semester’s focus on budgetary and fiscal consolidation, countries with a strong tradition of volunteering have started using this as a resource to offset the negative effects of austerity measures on public services. Our EU Strategy Groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom report that their governments are developing plans to use volunteers to provide certain social and health services that will no longer be offered by public institutions.
The upcoming 2015 SOLIDAR SPWI report will present a timely evaluation of the social dimension of the design and implementation of the 2014 European Semester. Specifically, this report will present the main findings and overall trends found in this year’s country studies and, moreover, it will include SOLIDAR’s general recommendations to counter the downward pressure on social policies and services in EU Member States.
